Project Abominations: Breaker Laboratories
by Kurieo Parnok
Summary: The final installment of the *Project Abominations* series, war is raging on Earth, but it is only a matter of time before it spreads. Alliances will be made and broken and secrets discovered as the Efforts fight for their sides and survival.
1. Prolouge

**Summary: ****The third and final installment of the **_**Project Abominations**_** Trilogy, the Revived Autobot-Decepticon War is about to reach full pitch. As Decepticons fight Autobots and the United Nations battle the Neo-Nazis, the Autobot Efforts seek Breaker Laboratories to make them answer for their crimes and the Decepticon Efforts seek the three Hidden Efforts and ways of survival. But Breaker Labs tends to be a clever, sick bunch and will have alliances made and broken long before they will ever go down…**

**Rated for:**** Language, Violence, Crude Humor**

**Author's Note:**** Thank yee, good readers, for being patient in awaiting the last installment of the **_**Project Abominations **_**trilogy. To new comers: I advice going to my gallery and reading first **_**Project Abominations**_**, then **_**Project Abominations: Transport City**_** in order to understand this. Reviews are appreciated, and if you **_**insist**_** on flaming, please do it with proper grammar and spelling.**

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Prologue:**

Images clicked by on screen, showing numerous alien robots.

"Let's start from the beginning, shall we? It all started when the Decepticons, a faction with in the Transformer race of Cybertron, led by Megatron, sought to take over the universe. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, fought the Decepticons and thus practically destroyed their world in the process and wound up bringing their war to Earth."

Now briefly, silent video footage appeared of numerous Decepticon attacks on Earth and humans fleeing from them, often being cut down and crushed under the Decepticons on their rampages. A brave American army soldier attempted to shoot at a towering, jet-winged figure standing in the billowing clouds of dust left over from when a building collapsed. The jet-winged figured turned to the soldier, casting glowing red eyes down on the human briefly before raising an arm. Bullets flew from the arm and struck the human. The human turned to the camera as he collapsed, but the figure turned away and strode off without even bothering to watch his defeated defiance crumble.

"Humans, naturally, befriended the Autobots, their protectors, when the Decepticons turned their violence upon the lesser fleshling race. For a very, _very_ long time, the relationship was established: Humans would live their lives, but when the Decepticons attacked in their quest for energy, the humans would run away and cower until the Autobots saved the day. The humans claimed no responsibility for them selves or the war and allowed the Transformers to way waste to their planet. Until…"

Now appeared footage of rank upon rank upon rank of jets, tanks, and human soldiers on screen, marching into a vast desert where the Decepticons had set up camp. Behind them came hundreds of trucks and cars, all full of gun and blunt-objet-wielding humans. This enormous force of humans, both professionals and amateurs, attacked the Decepticons, slaughtering almost all of them in a shocking display of zealous energy and rare team work.

"The humans became fed up with being crushed, shot, mind controlled, killed, et cetera, and hence, bounded all their forces together in a rather admirable attempt to destroy the Decepticons."

Clip after clip appeared of Decepticons crumbing to their knees, their Spark chambers blown apart by tank and jet missile. Other clips were of the Decepticons being dragged to the ground by swarms of humans who managed to disassemble them and smash in their Spark Chambers.

"They succeeded, much to _all_ Transformers' shock, and even some of the humans', and the Decepticon-Autobot War was over. Peace ruled, people rebuilt both on Earth and Cybertron, the remaining Decepticons were put in a new prison in the Asteroid Belt, and things were all warm fuzzies and smiles for miles."

Numerous clips came on screen of Transformers and human leaders were shaking hands, smiling, and even starting to engage in cultural activities; Minicons dancing with humans, a family washing a car before they started a water fight and the car transformed to join the fight. Even some movies where there were Transformer as well as human actors.

"Then the Breaker Laboratories stepped onto the scene. Being Earth's best private science discovery force, we asked if we could have the Decepticon Elites' comatose bodies for studying.

We suggested that we might even use them for researching the making of a human-Transformer hybrid in an effort to bring the two races even closer together. Our requests were gladly obeyed and chosen Autobots gave their compounds in preparation to create their own Efforts (the name of the human-Transformer hybrid) for this project, called Project Smelting to the public, but was known as Project Abominations with in the Breaker Laboratories. We were _supposed_ to destroy the Decepticons once our research was completed."

Now there was footage of humans and Transformers a like standing outside of a massive building, the Global Autobot Headquarters, and apparently shouting at the Autobot Elites with in. Police lined the perimeter to keep the mob from attacking.

"Of course, this was met with negative views from _both_ species, and it almost didn't happen. Emphasis on _almost_; it still happened. If the Autobots had listened to these religious no-men, or at least been more careful in their decisions, then they might not be in the _mess_ they're in now."

Video images appeared showing the large, unadorned, colorless halls of an unknown laboratory, numerous images of gruesome, failed fetuses, and the forming babies in their incubators.

"In one of Breaker Labs' most secretive bases in the lawless hell we all know as North Africa, we outfitted the underground base with blackmailed and desperate men and criminals who could defend the base from nosy natives without question, seeing as how they needed money _and_ their freedom. Forty years we worked, taking compounds from the Decepticon Elites and attempting to fuse them with human DNA. After twenty years, the original scientists on Project Abominations had died off from age and other, eh heh, _natural _causes and had been replaced with doctors not as naïve to believe in the love and heart image that Project Abominations-slash-Smelting was presented as to the public. You all know this generation of scientists, for we _are _that generation. As you know, it was a long, hard trial of intellect, but finally, we were successful in creating six children."

The image of a little boy with black hair and dark skin with indigo eyes appeared in a mug shot. He was young, probably only around nine to twelve years old, and was obviously going to be an amazingly hansom young man when he got older. Beside him was a little girl of the same age with blond hair streaked with black and blue with enormous blue eyes. Her cuteness alone would make even the hardest man want to coo in adoration.

"This is Feodric, Effort 56 of Decepticon Seeker Skywarp. This is Brittney, Effort 24 of Decepticon Seeker Thundercracker. They are the youngest of the Efforts. From last we saw, Feodric was going by the name of Shadowleap and has developed his father's ability to teleport, and Brittney is going by the name of Cartwheel with the ability to heal Transformers at a touch and diagnose other people's ailments with the same touch. Feodric-slash-Shadowleap has the same mischievous personality as his father while Brittney-slash-Cartwheel is your perfect, innocent angel, naïve to the world and of the sins of the people around her. Feodric is a replacement Effort for Effort 25, AKA Sam. That rocker-headed idiot ran away into the desert, probably only to dry up and die."

The image switched with the click of a projector remote and revealed a blue-haired boy with an expressionless face with his eyes covered in red goggles. He appeared with in his young teens; probably fourteen.

"This is Effort 137, son of Soundwave. He shares his father's same cool, expressionless personality. Last we heard of him, he was going by the name _Skynet_ and his powers, which we had _thought_ we'd erase through medical drugs, were back and in full power, or what we _hope_ is full power: Telepathy, telekinesis, and a technopath, one who controls machines, on top of that, 137-slash-Skynet is going to be a force to be reckoned with if what we saw was _not_ his full power. Know this, my friends: Skynet just very well might become the most powerful Effort of them all. Let us pray that 'Skynet' is not an omen of what is to come."

The image switched after this dramatic warning to reveal a tall, lanky, eighteen year old wearing spectacle glasses over silver eyes with smooth, neatly combed lavender hair tied back in a small pony tail. He appeared to be a sensible boy that could keep his hands to himself around girls and would much rather prefer a book and some study time than beer and partying.

"This sophisticated looking man is Effort 12, spawn of Shockwave. He goes by the name of Ferrofluid, last we saw, and no, he doesn't look like that any more. His eyes have changed so that one is completely black and the other possesses a golden iris with a thick black line around it, creating a rather spooky appearance. His vision has improved to that of super abilities, even by Transformer standards, and is extremely smart, just like his father. How ever, once in battle, he tends to become, shall we say, _zealous_?"

Click! Next up was an extremely attractive young woman in her late teens with a trim body and dark red, almost maroon hair, and fiery eyes with mahogany irises and ruby red pupils. While the others had kept up calm exteriors in their pictures, this girl looked ready to attack the camera man… _with her teeth_. The teeth, literally, were hunting-hound sharp. Judging by the small fuzz around the edges, the camera man had been trembling.

"Little Miss Terror here is Effort 33, Samantha, of the ever notorious Starscream. She has a temper and last we heard her name was Smartmouth, a proper name for her. From what we have seen from her, she has developed the ability to shoot laser shots from the space around her shoulders, much like her father and his shoulder-mounted null guns. She's a right little terror, isn't she? As ferocious as she is beautiful. Finally…"

The last image of the Decepticon Efforts was of a young man of the same age as Smartmouth. His cheek bones were high, his chin, narrow, and something about him reminded everyone of the Decepticon leader, Megatron. The gun-grey hair only helped in this familiarity, along with the dark, confident, alpha-male look in the boy's red-silver eyes. He did not smile, but neither did he exactly frown. He looked like he was peering at the camera man for weaknesses.

"_He_ is the appropriate leader of the Decepticon Efforts. He is Michel, Effort 83 of Lord Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. He has not developed any official powers; last we met, and has adopted the name Mextron, or 'Megatron Junior'. But do not take his lack of powers as a sign of weakness. He is strong, fast, clever, and skilled in the ways of leadership and combat, and above all, he _will_ be _ruthless_ should anyone dare attack his charges, the other Efforts."

The next picture was that of a group photo of the Decepticon Efforts. They were standing in a high-roofed, white-walled cafeteria hall of some sort. In their identical white and grey uniforms, their odd hair color was an explosion of color amidst the dull background. Mextron and Smartmouth were yelling at each other and Ferrofluid was rolling his eyes in humored familiarity. Shadowleap and Cartwheel were in the center, smiling and beaming happily while they hugged a stiff, blank-faced Skynet around the neck.

"All have appeared to have developed powers, probably from an energon diet, if my hypothesis is correct, and all but the youngest two seem to have gained the ability to transform into Transformers when their Spark Chambers, right beside their hearts, were pierced with metal.

"Well, these children were spawned and raised in the laboratory, but rose up one day and released their fathers, as well as Soundwave's Cassetticons, Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ravage, Rumble, and Frenzy. They killed many humans off before chasing the rest out and taking over the laboratory. In the months following the attack, the Decepticons rebuilt their army and we tried to contain the threat. But due to an act of betrayal caused by jealousy on behalf of Megatron that almost had Mextron killed, the Decepticons attacked an Autobot-infested Breaker Lab base and the war was brought to Transport City, the on-the-water metropolis just off the coast of the United Kingdom and home of the Global Autobot Headquarters and the Autobot Elites and their Efforts; all of whom are sixteen and were created once we were confident that their genetic structures were stable enough to survive with."

The image changed to a casual photo in a park somewhere of three girls. To the far left was a dark-skinned girl with long, wavy black hair and almond-shaped, turquoise eyes. The girl was a beautiful specimen, with a trim hour-glass figure, long eye lashes, and the pale blue lip gloss adding emphasis to her lips' plumpness. She was in a pair of jeans with French-cuff rolled bottoms and in a white blouse with a cop badge strapped to her belt and a gun raised in her hands.

To the far right was somewhat short and scrawny lass. Her hair was short, ear-length, flirt-styled hair, with bright red and white streaks. She possessed large cerulean eyes, currently furrowed together in a mock-growl as she appeared to be about to throw a wrench at the camera. She was dressed in a white and red baseball shirt with white jean briefs.

The center girl was not as thin as the girls on either side of her, but nor was she fat, dressed in green camouflage print cargo pants and tank top with a matching wool cap and aiming a monstrosity of a large gun directly at the camera. Her grinning eyes were pale blue and her hair was strawberry blond, matching the red freckles sprinkling her cheeks.

"From right to left; Anne, daughter of Ratchet, Jess, daughter of Ironhide, and Amethyst, preferably called Becky, and daughter of Prowl. Anne, like her father, is a saucy girl who is more prone to hurting her patients than helping them. That triple-barreled freak Jess is holding is Pointblank, a weapon of super power she invented with her father, as she shares her father's love for a good back end kicking. Amethyst-slash-Becky, the young beauty, works—or shall I say _worked_?—with her father on his patrols of Transport City."

The image changed to four boys sitting on a low stone wall around a fountain. To the far left was a pale young man with grey eyes and black hair. Next over on the left was a tall, awkwardly grinning young man with copper-colored hair and sea green eyes. In the center was a young man who appeared like he could pass for twenty with brown hair and deep, almost unnatural, blue eyes. Broad shouldered and strong, the man was a well-built lad. At the left end of the line was a younger boy with spiked light brown hair in a lab coat with goggles on his head.

"From right to left is Josh Witwicky; heir to the human family of friends to the Transformers, Michelangelo; the quiet, polite son of Skyfire, Benjamin; the noble, military-raised, son of the ever-famous Optimus Prime, and lastly, Jack Turbine; explosive apprentice of Wheeljack."

Another click of the remote and the image was the same, only the boys were looking up in shock as a grinning boy with bright yellow hair and sky blue eyes was apparently flying through the air over head, having some how jumped the boys from a side angle off screen.

"And that idiot skater boy is Max, son of Bumblebee.

"_This_ party has an interesting history, but more on that soon. But first, a summary on the party over all: With the exception of Max, all the Autobot Efforts are smarter than your average sixteen year old, hence allowing Anne to become a nurse and Becky to become a police deputy at such young ages. Benjamin has an extensive language field due to his program of constantly going to a different military school every year. Max, while he _is _an idiot, can fight rather well with his skateboard, which he calls Grind.

"The Decepticon Efforts were sent ahead to Transport City where they ambushed the Autobot Efforts as a warning of the Decepticons' revival. The Decepticons came to Transport City and once more they and the Autobots did war, even as Skyfire and Prowl with their children, Michelangelo and Becky, went to re-recruit their warriors. Becky was kidnapped by the Decepticon Seekers, as were the other Autobot Efforts, with the exception of Michelangelo, and Josh Witwicky, in time, in an attempt to weaken the Autobots by trading their Elites for the children's lives. Prowl could not be talked out of his panicked charge looking for Becky until the Lamborghini Twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, talked him into coming back to the city.

"During the four-day long war there, Megatron recruited the Neo-Nazi force into his army. The Neo-Nazis are a force taking up the old Nazi's goal for making the human race invincible, and are led by this man."

An image appeared of a stern, hansom-looking man with dark hair wearing a desert hat with a flap in classic Nazi garb. His eyes were the color of dark dried blood and he looked ready to pull out either a whip or a gun to attack the nearest man to him. The picture was taken from a distance through a window, looking into a building where temporary military quarters had been set up. He was standing at a table with some other men in similar Nazi garb, apparently planning battle plans out on the maps on the table. He was looking over his shoulder, a suspicious appearance on his face; as if he sensed that he was being watched.

_"This_ is General Balthazar, now known as Blitzwing the Second. He is of the small handful of lost Efforts that the first generation on Project Abominations released into the world upon testing. He is schizophrenic, with one side in a permanent mode of anger, another that is just _insane_, and this one we see now; the sanest and calmest of the three.

"Now, while much was done in those few days, let us summarize what we discovered through our agents spying there:

"First, Michelangelo is not an Effort. He was a human babe abandoned by his parents in Scotland and adopted by Skyfire, seeing as how his own compounds could not cooperate enough to give him a child. In spite of this, he and Skyfire still see each other as father and son.

"Second, Josh Witwicky, how ever, _is_ an Effort; Autobot Jazz's, to be specific. Jazz had turned in his compounds for Project Abominations-slash-Smelting, but had been knocked into a coma during a prison fight whilst at the Asteroid Belt Facility where the surviving Decepticons and other high Transformer criminals are kept. By the time he awoke, Josh had been adopted by the Witwicky family and could not be taken from them without causing serious psychological damage and confusion to the little boy.

"Finally, in the final hours of the Transport City battle, Max faced off with Decepticon Cassetticon Rumble and wound up angering the Cassetticon enough that he used his pile driver abilities to, literally, _break the city._ Simply put, Rumble became so angry that when he hit the ground in an attempt to knock Max down, he hit it with enough force that the supporting beams of Transport City, the things keeping the city above sea level, could not take the force and, literally, shattered. The city sank with in five hours.

"From this incident, we have discovered that Autobot Effort Anne and Josh were almost killed when they were pierced in the Spark Chambers and have unlocked their Transformer alt-modes; Josh is very much like his true Autobot father, Jazz, and Anne appears to be a robot of feline creation.

"With Transport City sunk, the Autobots have retreated back to their original Earthling home, the _Ark_, and the Decepticons are at their base in the northern lands of Africa. Both are mainly focused on defeating the other, from what we've gathered, and the United Nations are pouring much of their armed forces into Europe to fight the Neo-Nazis who are fighting to weaken the land there in preparation for proper Decepticon domination.

"But we also know that we are still a source of major concern among both factions. The Autobots know that we're dangerous, and by hacking into our mobile data bank with in the Internet, they now know of our experiments with the Decepticons and will discover information of the Hidden Efforts soon. We have reason to believe that the Decepticons now know of the Five Hidden Efforts; one they know is Josh Witwicky and the other is Balthazar-slash-Blitzwing II. The last three they are going to seek and enlist or destroy. We already have _one_ of the Efforts. The second, we know, is Sam, the same boy who ran away many years ago, and the third, we have yet to find.

"The times of war are here again, men. The governments of Cybertron and Earth are on high alert, the Autobots are collecting their forces and falling back into battle mode, and the Decepticons are slowly and carefully recruiting in desperate mechs. The human governments are scrambling their armies to fight the Neo-Nazis. The Decepticon Efforts have an internal battle program, courtesy of their fathers, so they are the stronger Efforts… for now. It is only a matter of time before the Autobot Efforts' battle programming awakens, and when they develop their Transformer forms and possible powers, this war will become that of epic power once more.

"You are gathered here today because not only is the world threatened, but so is our destiny. Our goal: Capture and kill or reprogram _all_ Efforts into our services, for if they remain free, we shall be captured and all we have worked for shall be for nothing.

"So, we of the Breaker Laboratory's Office of Domination, how are we to deal with this _issue_?"


	2. What Have You Been Up to? Part One

**Disclaimer: Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 2: What Have *You* Been Up To? Part One**

Empty white and grey halls and rooms sat in darkness, empty of life or objects. No cooling systems hummed, no lights buzzed, and no feet shuffled while people muttered. What ever had been there before was long gone and the building and laboratory complex was harmless in all aspects. Therefore, when police swarmed into the building with all the professionalism of raiding a crack house, a witness could have tilted their head in confusion at their excess zeal to take over the building. When the police realized that the building was empty, they quieted down and spread out, looking for any remaining bits of evidence of people. But they found nothing.

When this fact was established, one smallish officer pulled their helmet off. Raven black hair fell down around the officer's shoulders and her almond-shaped turquoise-colored eyes flared in annoyance. The police men around her edged away from her, rather than make remarks about your youth.

"Damnit!" she snarled, baring her teeth as she barely suppressed the urge to throw her helmet away. "They moved on us again!"

Another one of the lightly-armored officers pulled their helmet off, revealing a young man with brown hair and rich, almost-too-rich-to-be-natural, blue eyes.

"Perhaps we should consider Josh's advice to be more private about our plans, Becky?" the young man suggested. "We _do_ have a rather wide spread of excess men at our disposal. It would be better if we had only hand-picked men to help us find them."

Becky groaned and rubbed her face with a gloved hand as she responded, "I'd _really_ hate to agree with that damn flirt, but… you might be right, Benjamin. I'll have to make arrangements for a more private force to take out the Breaker Laboratory bases…"

"I wonder where they've all gone," Benjamin inquired, looking around at the empty rooms of the labs they had just swarmed. "We've been going after ever Breaker Laboratory location we know for the past three months and every time we come, they're gone. They have to be going _somewhere_! You can't just transport a global science community like that to a rented warehouse, after all."

"Who knows?" Becky asked. "This is Breaker Labs we're talking about! They created us _and_ the Decepticon Efforts _and _half this planet's superior technology _and _are the ass holes who released the Decepticons back upon the world. For all we know, they waved a magic wand and said abracadabra to disappear!"

"Take it easy, Becky," Benjamin cautioned, gently patting her on the back. "I know you get upset when a bust fails, but don't loose it on us, will you?"

Becky looked at her friend, then sighed and rolled her eyes before slamming the helmet back on her head.

"Fine," she growled. "Come on; let's go tell the others that we failed… _again_."

Outside the laboratory complex, set on a private hill-side estate, several police cars and vans waited. Around one particular police car was Autobot Effort Jess, with pale blue eyes and strawberry-colored hair, and Anne, a smallish, red-and-white haired fire ball of a lass. They looked up when they saw the police, Benjamin and Becky coming back outside and nodded in understanding.

"Ditched us again?" Jess sighed. "I heard you yelling from all the way out here."

Apparently," Becky growled, pulling her helmet off yet again and slamming it on the police cruiser's hood. "I don't get it! How do they keep slipping?"

"Breaker Labs _is_ a crafty force," a male voice said from the police car. "We may have to take Josh's advice and construct a private task force to take them out. Or take Max's advice and just 'do it on an impulse'."

There were negative groans from the female Autobot Efforts. They all knew how immature Max was and did _not_ look upon listening to his advice. The most effort he had ever put into anything in his life was the creation of the leather harness that he wore, even now, which carried his skateboard, Grind, on his back. The fact that he had named his _skateboard_ was only adding strength to Max's never-serious-never-smart-skater boy image.

"Well," Benjamin said, "Doing it on impulse it is a bit irresponsible… but doing it with just a small force, like ourselves, _would_ be wise. Prowl, did you bring energon this time? I'm getting hungry."

"In the trunk," Prowl replied even as his trunk popped open.

There were approving mutters from the Efforts as they pulled bottles of glowing purple substance from the trunk and helped themselves. The Efforts had begun a diet of energon rather than traditional human food when they realized that the energon was making them stronger. Normally, humans would be poisoned if they managed to drink energon, but these kids were Efforts: Part Transformer, part human.

They could drink the energon and benefit from it. Jess had started developing superior hearing as apart of the ability, and Max had started getting uncannily good with guessing games and predictions. Becky had already possessed the powers of a lie detector, as her head would buzz every time someone would lie around her. Anne was becoming freakishly skilled in fields of medical knowledge that she had not even begun to study in.

Jess unscrewed the cap on her bottle and raised it to her lips, ready to take a nice, deep drink. But she froze, her eyes snapping to alertness as something caught her attention. In her ears alone she heard a small hiss of a flame starting…

"DUCK!!" she screamed, dropping her energon and tackling Anne and Benjamin behind Prowl. Even as she did this, the laboratories exploded.

- - - - -

Any other plane would be grounded right now, but Skyfire in space jet mode wrestled amidst

the hurricane's winds, ignoring the way his metal wings shook and clanged in the force of the wind. In side of him, a tall, lanky boy with sea green eyes and copper curls clutched the door way into the cock pit of the jet and braced his feet and looked back into the cargo area. In the cargo area, a black and white robot was kneeling on the floor. The young robot's arms and legs were black up to the elbows and knees with a black X pattern on his chest, a black collar, and a black helmet with a silver hat bill, currently dropped down over his optics. Cones on the back of his heels were emitting a soft white glow.

"You ready, Josh?" the human boy yelled over the thunder, roaring wind, and shaking metal. "You're dropping in T-minus three minutes!"

Josh grinned and nodded, then raised one metal hand and called back, "Just don't loose your lunch, MJ!"

MJ, fully known as Michelangelo, adopted human son of Skyfire, glanced over his shoulder when a red light lit up in Skyfire's cock pit and buzzed. He looked back at Josh and slammed a button on the wall beside him.

"That's your cue!" he called, "Go! Go! Go!"

The metal doors below Josh dropped open and the young mech plummeted into the wild winds below. Cold ran, hot lightening, and violent winds raged around Josh as he fell through the sky, plummeting like a rock. The night around him was as dark as a blind person's world, being lit up only by glances of lightening and the light coming from Josh's heel cones. Two spots on his chest opened up to reveal head lights, thus lighting the night a little more. Suddenly, purple light came up from below and the distant noise of laser fire, muffled by the storm. Josh twisted to avoid the shot and looked down. Below himself, he could see numerous multi-colored lights running back and forth on what appeared to be an oil rig docked at some unlucky town's shore. Grinning, Josh made his chest lights turn off and go into hiding again. The lightening flickered off of his visor and metal exterior, but other that, he was barely seeable.

A stray red laser shot came up through the rain, almost striking Josh. At the last moment, though, the white light in his heel cones flared to life and plasma flames growled to life, spinning him around onto his feet and allowing him to hover in mid-air. The metal on his back shifted and rose up, turning into a bullet-shaped jet pack. On either side of the jet pack two smaller rockets came. All three new structures emitted white flames, thus completing Josh's jet aerial equipment.

Josh dove down into the fight with a confident grin on his metallic face. Scanning the deck of the oil rig, he quickly summarized the situation: Ten Decepticons, four Autobots, two Autobots down, another three Decepticons down, making a total of thirteen Decepticons and six Autobots. Everyone was at a stalemate. He spotted a familiar black and silver robot and landed behind him, belaying the difficulty of flying in stormy weather by landing with a picture of perfect ease.

"Hey, Dad, I'm here, how can I help?" he called over the storm.

Jazz looked at Josh and replied, "Tell me that there's more reinforcements coming."

The noise of a massive transformation rang out over head and Skyfire in robot form landed with a loud crash on the deck, making it sway under his enormous weight. In the cock pit on Skyfire's back, MJ was strapped down into the pilot's seat. Jazz's jaw dropped in shock and several Decepticons backed up. Josh just kept grinning wickedly.

"Well, it's just the two of us," he admitted, "But, hey, better than nothing, neh?"

Skyfire drew his gun and aimed it at one of the Decepticons. The end of the barrel began to glow brightly and the aforementioned Decepticon cried out, turning and running away.

"Get back here!" one of the Decepticons, the leader, snarled, "We have to take this ship for His Lordship."

"Remember: I get a Transformer name when we win this," Josh told Jazz.

Josh took air again, flying firm against the storm's wind and flew to the Decepticon. Joining the wind and using it as a sort of sling shot, Josh let the wind push him with it and slammed a foot in the leader's head.

"'His Lordship' can come get this ship himself," Josh commented.

_"Nice, Josh!"_ a familiar voice called on Josh's communication link. _"Now get over to the teleportation device and disarm it before it takes the ship to Primus-knows where!"_

"Any tips on how to do that, Jack?" Josh asked, taking a step forward.

A gust of wind knocked Josh from his feet, dropping him to his back, and pushed him across the deck as if he were a mere stuffed animal. Josh cried out in surprise and barely caught the guard rail as he was flung off the ship, hanging on by a hand while he flapped in the wind like a flag.

_"Dude, Josh, it's not like the movies,"_ Jack Turbine, human apprentice of Wheeljack, went on while he was oblivious to Josh's predicament, _"All you have to do is rip some wires out and badda beem badda boom, you're good."_

A red metal hand clasped itself around Josh's metal wrist and pulled him back aboard the ship, giving him an additional helping arm behind the back to keep him from flying right off again.

"Thanks, Ironhide," Josh told the red mech, shouting over the wind.

"Come on, kid," Ironhide yelled, pushing against the wind as he pulled Josh across the deck, "Let's get that teleporting thing disabled before we all show up for dinner with the Decepticons!"

Coming to a wall, they saw a large contraption of wires, metal, and blinking purple lights stuck to the ship. While it would be easier to shoot it out, they needed the device in one piece that way they could download the destination codes off of it and find out where the Decepticons' new base exactly was.

Josh stepped away from Ironhide, pressing himself against the wall, and began pulling at the sucker pads of the device. Ironhide looked around, making sure no Decepticon interfered with Josh's work. He looked up, only to be tackled by a black and dark grey anonymous Decepticon. The wind exaggerated the tackle, sending the wrestling Autobot and Decepticon sliding half way across the deck. One of Skyfire's laser shots cut the air over head like an unnaturally straight lightening bolt, vaporizing a couple of Decepticons that were trying to escape. Another Decepticon tried sneaking up behind Josh, but Jazz appeared out of the sheets of side-ways falling rain and struck the Decepticon in the jaw, engaging in compact.

Josh ignored the fight around him, pulling and prodding at the teleportation device. Finally, the device pulled away with a wet sucking noise, leaving strings of Transformer glue trailing between the device and the ship wall. He held it triumphantly over head, turning around to the battle.

"I got it!" he called as a proud grin crossed his face.

A large light in the center of the device flashed red as if it were angry at being pulled off the wall, an action mimicked by the other lights on the device, and shot a large laser bolt through the air. Ironhide saw the laser shot coming and yanked his opponent in between himself and the shot, turning the unfortunate Decepticon into a living shield. The Decepticon absorbed the full laser shot, which burned straight into his energy core. The grin was still on Josh's face, but was now strained.

"Oh," he said, laughing nervously, "If it's not gonna teleport, it's gonna blow up. Eh hee, clever little trick, that…"

"Get it out of here, Josh!" Skyfire exclaimed over the storm as he waved a flying Decepticon away from his face.

"Gonna need a boost, Skyfire!" Josh replied, tucking the time bomb under his arm and running to the giant Transformer.

Understanding, Skyfire knelt and held a hand out. Josh jumped into the hand and Skyfire stood quickly before throwing the Autobot Effort into the air. Josh's jets roared to life as he was flung up, rocketing him through the rain and higher into the sky. Blasting through the rain and silently begging Primus that lightening wouldn't hit him, Josh cut right through the storm, through the clouds, and into the clear sky over head. Up here, it was quiet, silent, and peaceful.

The device Josh held began crying out in warning and Josh flung it away quickly even as he backed away to what he hoped was a safe distance. The device spun around in the air before exploding. Black smoke, red and orange flames and showering energon like fairy magic lit up the sky, turning into a dramatic and explosive firework show. Josh watched as the bomb's flaming bits fell towards the clouds before going out and showers of energon faded out in the night air. After a long moment, Jazz spoke through Josh's communication link.

_"You alive, Josh?"_

"Yeah, Dad, I'm fine," Josh replied, placing a hand to the side of his head. "How's it down there?"

_"Ah the Decepticons ditched us. At least we killed five of the suckers. Hold on, Skyfire's loading us up now, we'll pick you up on our way up…"_

- - - - -

Thousands of miles away, somewhere in Europe, a corn field had become a battlefield. United Nation troops were fighting with all the strength they could against the Neo-Nazi forces.

While all the United Nations' forces were marked by a dark green uniform for all ranks, the Neo-Nazis outfitted their men with different uniforms; if they were mere grudges, available for the sacrificing, they wore simple light brown uniforms. If they were soldiers worth considering saving, they had black and purple accents on the light and brown uniforms. Superior soldiers wore all black and dark purple uniforms and generals and higher wore black, dark purple and red uniforms. It had been considered that the reason for such color changes was a mode of teasing from the Neo-Nazis: The United Nation forces were aware of the rank differences in the Neo-Nazis because of the uniforms, but they still couldn't even touch the higher ranks. Little did the New Allies know was that the uniforms were actually mere tricks of the imagination; all one would have to do was have a low soldier and a high general switch places and a UN fighter would accidentally waste bullets on someone who was not worth it.

Now, at the eastern most part of the battleground, some black and red Neo-Nazi tanks waited for their line to spread out more as it crossed the field so that they may sneak into the fight. Some jeeps and trucks of supplies were behind them. One soldier stumbled over to one of the jeeps, a black and yellow one, clutching his wounded shoulder. He needed a medic, but this Neo-Nazi had been taught that he would wait for medical help until he was on the verge of delirium or death.

"Progress is going well, sir," the soldier told the jeep in the Austrian tongue. "But the enemy is about to make a push back, and our troops' footing is as delicate as it is—"

He flinched when a grenade went off dangerously close by, sending soil and flames leaping into the air and showering down on the soldier and the jeep as the light briefly lit up the scene. The brief fire light flickered across a dark purple Decepticon symbol stamped on the side doors of the Jeep. After a moment of silence, the jeep's engine purred to life.

"We'll see about that," a deep, gruff voice grunted from the jeep as it drove off.

The jeep sped over the rough, broken terrain of the ruined cornfield, running over turned up soil and fallen corn and soldiers alike. It came to the front of the Neo-Nazi army force where the Nazis were facing the UN soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. UN tanks were causing havoc among the Nazi ranks, shooting the soldiers out even as they wrestled for their lives from the UN soldiers. The jeep slid to a halt, turning slightly, and transformed. Broad shoulders like a football player emerged from the car, followed by well-muscled limbs, clawed fingers, and one annoyed-looking robot's head. He drew a large gun from either thigh, spun them around in show, and opened fire on the tanks.

Even after over forty years of being allies with the Transformers, no human tank could with stand the fury of laser fire. The tanks exploded or melted under the fire, turning what little confidence the UN men had into terror and confusion. It served the purpose to send the soldiers scrambling and thus gave the Neo-Nazis the upper hand to rush forward, winning the battle.

A small smile crept across the yellow and black army jeep Transformer's metal face, but quickly hid it when a masculine, German voice spoke in his communication's link.

"_A bit of over kill, don't you think, Mash?"_

"Sir, I confess that I was somewhat restless to have some action, General Balthazar, sir," Mash said, turning his red optics to the sky.

The sound of shifting metal sounded in the communications link and an angry Austrian voice snarled through the link**, **_**"I told you, it's Blitzwing now, you clanking dolt! Balthazar is a name our enemies use!"**_

"My apologies, sir," Mash replied, rolling his optics at the insults. "But if I May be so bold: Can you _fly_ in midst of your Hot Head personality, or are they making flying tanks now a days?"

Again, the shifting metal sound and the cool German voice from before replied, _"Well put, Mash. But I would like to point out to you that do to your actions you have tipped off the Autobots of your existence."_

As if to agree, a car engine roared to life as a red and white ambulance, a yellow punch buggy, and a red and blue semi truck headed towards him. As they came upon Mash, they transformed in Autobots Ratchet, Bumblebee, and Optimus Prime. The human troops backed up, knowing their place: Humans fought humans and Transformers fought Transformers. It was not their place to elbow into the Transformers' battle.

Mash growled, raising his guns and aiming them at the Autobots.

"Alright," he growled. "Line up so this'll be easy…"

"_Not so fast, Mash,"_ Blitzwing pointed out. _"We don't want to harm our own allies with the shockwaves of battle, now, do we?"_

Jets screamed briefly in the air before a tan, black and purple streak dove from the sky, came upon Bumblebee, and snatched him back into the air.

"Bumblebee!" Ratchet exclaimed, chasing after his kidnapped friend.

Mash shot at the distracted Optimus Prime. Optimus ducked and came back up, swinging a fist at Mash. Heeding Blitzwing's words, Mash danced back and away from Optimus' swing, leading him to an unoccupied grove near by. The sound of a jet roaring over head and the crash of something heavy falling into the trees tipped him off that Blitzwing had dropped his hostage. Optimus aimed his gun at Mash and shot. Mash jumped back and to the side, avoiding the shot. Behind him, Ratchet came upon Bumblebee, helping him to his feet just before Blitzwing attacked. Blitzwing shouted something in German and Mash ducked as a jet of fire came from his commander behind him. Then he jumped to the side as ice appeared, freezing the trees and the ground around them. Optimus reared back, but the ice encased his feet and held him firm.

Ratchet and Bumblebee shot at the ice encasing Optimus' feet, releasing him, and thus the party fought, dodging each others' shots, shooting, striking out, and even frequently exchanging opponents and mixing up teams. The battle was called off, though, when Blitzwing and Mash both received a message from a familiar second-in-command on their communications links.

"_That's enough for the distraction; the Seekers had succeeded in bombing the enemy's weapons' factories."_

The Autobots spun around when an enormous explosion lit up the horizon in the distance.

"The gun factory!" Bumblebee exclaimed helplessly.

Optimus looked up as a small party of army jets sped by over head. Looking into the grove, past Mash, he saw a pair of glowing red optics, one being rounder and larger than the other. The light brown mech with black boots and gloves, purple accents, and a desert hat helmet smirked in triumph. Suddenly, the blue face spun around in a blur, turning into a black jack-o-lantern face with a red mouth and eyes.

"You better go help your friends if you don't want them to become play things for the Decepticon Efforts!" the jack-o-lantern face laughed in a strange, warped, high-pitched voice. "Ooh, and don't forget the Marshmallows to cook over the fire!"

Optimus glared at Random Blitzwing, but knew that he had little choice.

"Let's go, Autobots," Optimus growled, transforming back into his semi form and speeding towards the exploded factory. "We have more important things to do."

Ratchet and Bumblebee followed Optimus away from the fight. Mash watched them go then looked at Blitzwing.

"Sir," he said, "Shouldn't we kill them while we have a chance?"

Random Blitzwing looked at Mash then his face shifted, becoming the maroon-faced, visor-eyed appearance of Hot Head Blitzwing.

"**You're questioning my choice, you puny little mech??"** he snarled. Then he was replaced with Cold Blitzwing who informed Mash calmly, "Lord Megatron gave specific orders to let them live; he wishes to deal with them personally.

- - - -

Countless miles away, on a far off, distant metal planet, civilian Transformers watched the battle

TV, courtesy of intergalactic news channels, in a Cybertronian version of a coffee shop.

"Ugh, look at them," one mech grunted, "All those squishes splattering all over the place every time they get hit. It's disgusting."

"I think it's kind of entertaining," another mech giggled. "Kind of like watching a water storage bag pop when it has too much!"

"You men are disgusting," a waitress growled, slamming the mechs' newest round of energon on the counter in front of them. "Enjoying carnage like that. You're no better than a Decepticon. Alias, babe, turn it to something better, will ya? Try the sports channel, that's always good."

A young femme set aside her broom to go and change the television channel. Behind her, her long metal broom quietly unfolded legs from its body and scuttled away. The teenage femme cried out and chased after the broom, thus providing entertainment for the customers as the girl bolted back and forth across the restaurant for the Transformer critter. By the time she finally caught it, the mech customers had left, leaving Alias and the senior waitress in the Cybertronian energon shop.

The waitress looked to the television and was dismayed to see yet another breaking news report about the war. She shook her head sadly as she cleaned up the counter.

"I'm tellin' ya, Alias," the waitress said. "Everyone here jokes and laughs about the war just because it's on another planet. But trust me, kiddo, it doesn't matter how far away we are. That war's coming for us, kid, and when it does, look out!"

Alias clutched the metal pole broom to herself while she stared at the waitress and listened to the speech, and her nervous cerulean optics fixed them selves on the TV. She understood what the waitress was saying, and it scared her because it was true.


	3. What Have You Been Up to? Part Two

**Disclaimer: Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 3: What Have *You* Been Up To? Part Two**

Ferrofluid brushed a hand through his lavender hair to move it out of his eyes. Behind his round black sunglasses, his eyes, one pure black and the other gold with a thick black ring around the iris, scanned the data screen, reading over the latest reports. Sighing in annoyance, the eighteen year old leaned back in his chair, tucking his hands behind his head while his pale bluish lavender, black-accented over coat fell open around him, revealing simple pale blue jeans and a white tee shirt. The wing-like fins poking out from behind his ears dropped in agitation.

"Stupid foot soldiers," he sighed, "Can't even teleport a simple oil rig even _with_ a hurricane covering them…"

"The news isn't good, is it?" a new young man asked, entering the room.

Ferrofluid looked up to look at the new young man. He had iron grey hair with red-silver eyes, an angular face, and dressed in simple grey jeans, shoes, and turtle-neck sweater. He was younger than Ferrofluid, but Ferrofluid had known him long enough to respect him.

"How'd you know?" Ferrofluid asked.

"Your ear fins are up; sheath them and report."

Ferrofluid's ear fins shrank and disappeared as he sat up, reporting to his friend and superior.

"I'm afraid it's not good, Mextron," Ferrofluid told his fellow Decepticon Effort. "The team we sent to steal the oil rig were intercepted by Autobot forces and failed, as were the other two teams we sent out on the same mission. The party attempting to take over the solar plant in Mexico were chased off by Autobot Blaster's head-drilling sound frequencies. But I'm afraid the party sent after the Canadian oil ranch faired worse…"

"Oh my, what happened?" Mextron asked, clearly more curious than concerned.

"They were chased off by human children in snow plows."

"Nice people, the Canadians, but they can wreak all sorts of hell when you mess with them. Any good news?"

"The war in Europe is going well: So far, General Blitzwing has been successful in every order he's been given. I must admit that we've been doing much better sense he came on board with us. Even Starscream and the rest of the Seekers are being obedient, for once. How about here? I've been so busy looking over the affairs of afar that I've not been able to keep up with what is here."

"Why don't Cartwheel and Shadowleap tell you themselves?" Mextron chuckled.

Right on cue a couple of small children ran into Ferrofluid's computer-filled office. Both were around eleven year old. The boy had dark skin, black hair, and indigo eyes, wearing a purple and white polo shirt with matching black pants and leather shoes. His partner was a little girl with blonde hair streaked with blue and black streaks in it, matching her large, innocent blue eyes. She was dressed in a blue and white dress. Ferrofluid squeaked in faked dismay as the little girl, Cartwheel, hopped into his lap and the little boy, Shadowleap, bounced beside the chair.

"Hey, Ferrofluid, guess what?" Cartwheel asked breathlessly. "Daddy lifted a whole crate of energon when we were moving supplies!"

"Really, now?" Ferrofluid asked. "I didn't know Thundercracker's that strong!"

"He's not," Shadowleap snickered, "He was just trying to out do Flickword and hurt his back so Cartwheel had to fix him. Flickword may look goofy, but he's strong!"

"This is true," Ferrofluid agreed as he rustled Shadowleap's hair. "And how about you? I _know_ you and your father, Skywarp, are never bored around here, in spite of being in the middle of the desert."

"We teleported your dad into the rafters in the main hall; He's dangling by his ankle from them right now."

Ferrofluid sighed as he looked at Mextron and rolled his eyes.

"That was the purpose of your visit, wasn't it?" Ferrofluid asked, slightly amused.

Mextron shrugged as he admitted, "Even I need a good laugh once in a while."

"Well," Ferrofluid said, putting Cartwheel on her feet on the floor and standing up. "Let's go get my dad down. Honestly, Shadowleap, you couldn't have teleported him down?"

"I didn't wanna."

"It's 'I didn't _want to_'," Ferrofluid corrected. "Come on. I must admit, though, that I'm looking forward to when Skywarp and Thundercracker are finally sent on to the war in Europe. Hopefully, things will be _calmer_ then."

- - - -

"Can some one _please_ get me down from here before I loose my temper?" Shockwave called.

"Eh, I don't feel like it," Thundercracker said, leaning against the wall as he sipped a cube of energon. "Because then I'd have to turn on my jets and go up there and… yeah, I just don't feel like it."

"Skywarp?" Shockwave called to the dark purple and black copy of Thundercracker, "_You're_ the one who did this! Undo it!"

The Seeker chugged down his energon and burped loudly. He disappeared in a purple flash before reappearing on the other end of the main hall to drop his empty cube in a disposal bin before he flashed, disappeared again, and appeared crouching on top of the rafter Shockwave was stuck on, dangling by his ankle and a length of wire rope high above the floor.

"Nah, you make a nice decoration, Shock," Skywarp laughed.

He continued laughing even as he teleported to be right back beside Thundercracker and the two cackled, exchanging high-fives.

"I've heard that you request assistance, father," Ferrofluid said as he, Mextron, Cartwheel, and Shadowleap entered the main hall of the Decepticon's underground base. The base had initially been a Breaker Laboratory base where the Decepticon Efforts had been born and raised, as well as the Decepticons had been held captive, before the Efforts had rebelled and released their fathers, thus starting the Revived War. Since then, it had been remodeled to accompany an army of Decepticons that grew with each passing day as more and more crime-minded and other devious mechs came to be recruited.

"Ah, Ferrofluid, there you are," Shockwave said, turning as best he could to look at his son. "Yes, I appear to be stuck. Lend a servo, will you?"

"My pleasure," Ferrofluid replied.

A red light encompassed Ferrofluid, making him enlarge as his skin turned to metal and new plates appeared, changing even his overcoat outfit into superior alien technology armor. When the red glow had disappeared, Ferrofluid had become a Transformer. Colored in the same blush lavender of his overcoat, Ferrofluid appeared to still be wearing his overcoat, in spite of being over thirteen feet tall, with black accents on his person. He had the same wing-like antennae of his father and a protruding square-shaped chest plate. A black visor covered his optics and his hands were long, sharp, narrow claws.

The over coat broke apart from Ferrofluid and reformed into a set of ragged dragonfly wings on his back. The wings began to move, buzzing as they turned into a see-through blur, and Ferrofluid's platform metal feet left the floor as he flew up to the high ceiling where Shockwave dangled. Carefully, he moved Shockwave's foot so that he was free to the fall to the floor. Shockwave flipped over in mid-air, landing in a crouching position with his one hand braced on the floor while the other, a mere gun, pointed in the air for balance. He looked up and his single yellow optic flared at the Decepticon Seekers Skywarp and Thundercracker. The Seekers exchanged worried glances as a familiar raspy male voice called over the intercom system.

"_Decepticon Seekers Thundercracker and Skywarp: Report to the garage immediately. You're joining the jet forces in Europe."_

"Well, look at that," Skywarp said quickly, "Looks like we got action. See ya, kids!"

Thus bidding their Efforts good bye, Skywarp teleported away and Thundercracker transformed and rocketed out of the room.

Shockwave chuckled as he stood, his optics' glow dimming, and brushed himself off even as Ferrofluid landed beside him.

"Thank you, Ferrofluid," Shockwave commented.

"Your welcome, sir," was the simple reply.

"Has anyone seen Skynet?" Mextron spoke up. "I haven't seen him in a while."

"I believe he and Soundwave were sent out on a private scouting mission," Shockwave replied. "It's confidential, so I'm afraid that I can't give you any more information other than to say that the date of their return is undetermined."

- - - -

Meanwhile, somewhere on a beach in South Korea, people were playing as they would on any beach on any sunny day. Teenagers showed off their physical youth in scant bikinis and swimming shorts. Others called out for their children to, for the love of God, stop poking that! Elderly couples read books in their umbrella-shaded lawn chairs, sometimes falling into a state of sleep that made passerby question whether or not their hearts were beating. Surfers and swimmers and an occasional pet dog frolicked in the waves and loving couples walked hand-in-hand along the wet sand, maneuvering around curious youngsters making sand castles and exploring the treasures hidden in the sand.

One young man ran over to his van and got a Frisbee, carelessly leaving the trunk door open as he ran back to join his friends. Some towels shuffled and a dark blue hover camera peeked out from beneath them. Hover cameras appear to be much like any regular camera, but have been invented to have the ability to fly via remote and give off holograms of actual reporters so that News teams could get footage of events too dangerous for humans or even Transformers to get close to.

This particular hover camera's red lens looked around, making sure that no one was noticing the rented bit of video equipment was moving before it jumped out of the van. It stopped its decent inches from the sandy ground and gained some altitude, coming to the height of an average human head, and floated away from the beach. As it moved over some tall beach grass, the grass shifted and a large black panther-robot slunk along beside the camera, holding a blue and white cassette player gently in its jaws. When the pair had come to a small, private valley amidst the sandy dunes, the panther set the cassette player down.

Instantly the cassette player transformed into a blue and white mech with a cassette player design on his chest. His face was hidden by a white mask and red visor. The hover camera dropped and, it, too, transformed, changing from robot to human almost too quickly for one to notice. Both bore Decepticon insignias on their chests.

Aged around fourteen years old, the humanized mech was pale with a blue vest over a snug, long-sleeved white shirt whose turtle neck reached up to cover his lower face. He had matching blue pants and boots and blue gloves with white wrists. A red glass visor hid his eyes and his hair was a rich, simple blue.

"Orders," the older, larger robot stated in a bland, masculine tone. "Seek suitable target for personal mission while I intercept the Breaker Labs agent near by."

Turning away, the panther and its master, Soundwave, moved in one direction while Soundwave's son, Skynet, walked in another direction.

Coming to the top of a sand dune that looked over the whole beach, Skynet telepathically reached out and brushed his mental powers across the minds of all the people there. Everyone at the beach was enwrapped in their own goofy happiness of a good summer week end. When he pushed deeper, he found that while many of them had the typical civilian worries, like when to pay the bill, does she really like me or doesn't she, how they would afford this movie or that car, none of them were extraordinary beyond that. None of them were particularly violent, clever, or even curious. It was somewhat frustrating, but Skynet was patient. If he was going to choose Cassetticons to be his permanent partners in this universe, he couldn't go and pick just anyone.

Suddenly, an orange spark flashed in the black void of Skynet's telepathic understanding, signaling someone who was just _perfect_: Violent, desperate, and ready to sacrifice everything they knew to go to something better. Turning his head, Skynet scanned the sands, seeking for the source of the spark.

Then… there; behind that shack, with the dune leaning up against it like an unwanted, drunken friend!

Skynet made his way quickly to the shack. In the shadows behind it, he saw four tough, roughish street scamps surrounding one well-muscled lad. Already, Skynet checked off that the subject was physically capable: The muscles were pressed up against the white muscle shirt the subject wore and below his lime green and blue splotched swimming trunks the leg muscles were well toned and tensed, ready to spring into any direction. Small scars on the human's face showed that he had fought before and was experienced in fighting. Fine: Physical capabilities and fight experience was more than easy enough to find. But did he have the right _mind_ set?

The beach breeze brushed against the target's black hair, dyed with dark red and orange. The target and his four foes exchanged quick, hostile words with each other in the Korean tongue, failing to notice the odd boy standing on top of the sand dune above them. Skynet brushed aside the present, unnecessary thoughts of his target, past the memories and past the plans, going straight to the root of what made this person _him_. All this was done with such telepathic skill that the target began to fight his foes without realizing some one was in his head.

This person… yes; he had a sort of recklessness about him, a stupid humor, even. But he would be loyal, and he would be worth it. His fighting skills were practiced, his life was immaterial and expendable, and his mind set was just in the right stage for manipulation and transformation. Yes, Skynet had finally found a suitable subject, but first, he needed to remove these pesky fighters…

Skynet raised a hand and, with a single telekinetic swoop and a hand gesture, sent all the fighters flying over the sand dunes and the shack's roof. His target spun around, his eyes widening in shock at the display of supernatural power before he finally spotted Skynet and turned to him, brown eyes bulging in shock.

- - - - -

One aging man was sitting on a beach chair on the sand of a private beach that went along with the house on the hill behind him. Suffering the common symptom of being over weight at age fifty-eight, he was giving his pale skin a much needed tan while he let his balding head wonder around things, even while his black mustache face was buried in an old-fashioned romance novel.

This was Dr. _Sa_ favorite place to vacation: Private, warm, clean, and not even the government bothered him here. After all, all he had to do was put a few police men on the paycheck and no one would tattle that a Breaker Laboratory doctor was here. Ever since the cat had gotten out of the bag about Breaker Labs' betrayal to the world by letting the Decepticon Elites live and even break out, every government in the world wanted to capture and arrest them. Fortunately, such issues like a world-wide man hunt had been long since predicted and prepared for…

At that moment, large methodic thumps approached Dr. Sa from up the beach, making him look up from his book and blink in fear. Had the Autobots found him? But what he saw was much worse and made him drop his book, jump from his chair, and attempt bolting to the house.

Soundwave over took him and slammed his hand down, pinning Dr. Sa to the sand. Sa cried out in fear, but Soundwave's shoulder cannon aimed itself at the human's chubby head. Soundwave's panther Cassetticon, Ravage, prowled around his master's hand and the human, growling lowly all the while.

"P-Please don't hurt me," Sa pleaded pathetically in his native Korean tongue. "I-I-I didn't do anything!"

"Inquiry: Then why do you fear?" Soundwave asked.

Sa fell silent, but his lower lip still trembled.

"Inquiry," Soundwave went on, "Location of three Transformer Efforts."

"W-What?" Sa gasped, his eyes widening in a recognition that belayed his lying, "What are you talking about?"

Soundwave removed his hand and Ravage pounced on Sa, snarling savagely as he pressed a clawed paw to Sa's chubby neck. Sa cried out in fear while Soundwave knelt over the robot panther and terrified elderly human.

"Warning: Lying will endanger life," Soundwave stated. "Order: Tell where three hidden Transformer Efforts are. Known Efforts: Autobots: Anne, Becky, Benjamin, Jess, Josh, Max. Decepticons: Blitzwing, Cartwheel, Ferrofluid, Mextron, Shadowleap, Skynet, Smartmouth. We know there are three more hidden Transformer Efforts. Inquiry: Where are remaining Efforts?"

"I-I-I don't know," Sa whimpered, "I really don't. Oh god, they said I was going to be safe, oh god, blood said that it watched over its own. Please, oh mercy, please, don't kill me…"

Sa dissolved into sobs. Soundwave stared at him, trying to figure out what the doctor meant by "blood said that it watched over its own", but seeing as how it did not appear to have any relation to his mission, he merely stored the information away for later dissection. He stood and turned away. He gave a mental order and Ravage snarled as he clenched his claws in the excess meat around Sa's neck. Blood stained the tide's waters moments later. Soundwave perked his head as Ravage dealt with the body, feeling a new presence in the circle of minds he kept in his mental communications circle. After a moment of examining this new presence, he sent a feeling of approval to Skynet.

Skynet had created his first Cassetticon.

- - - - -

Several hours later, another man was investigating some blue prints when a younger worker entered his office and bowed low to him.

"Dr. Moriguchi, Sir," the worker said. "Our pay roll officers in South Korea have just informed us that the body of Sa was found murdered at his private beach home this afternoon. It has been safely assumed that Transformers have done the job, sir."

Moriguchi glanced at the worker then went back to his blue prints as he waved a hand dismissively.

"So?" he asked. "That is Sa's problem, not mine."

The worker seemed about to say something more, but merely bit their tongue, nodded, and left.

When the worker had gone, Moriguchi pulled a sheet out of paper out from under the blue prints. It was a list of names of the members of his group, including minor political figures, doctors, rage-crazed scientists whose theories had been "rudely rejected by the close-minded community", and some plain crime family rulers, all of whom had joined Moriguchi's organization for their own slice of the pie. Moriguchi found Sa's name and crossed it off in red pen.

"One down," he muttered. "Eleven to go…"


	4. Making Plans and Thinking

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 4: Making Plans and Thinking**

Megatron strode down the halls of his underground base. Whenever he passed by Decepticons, they saluted or bowed to him, no matter what they were doing, improving his mood. He could remember a time when he would stand among these same mechs and none of them would even glance at him, as he had just been one of them once, a long, long time ago. He had continued being one of them, even as his plans for universal domination grew, and had even been mildly surprised when people had sworn their loyalty to him, wishing for change as well. It had been difficult to maintain respect in the beginning days of his campaign, but now it was something he expected from all mechs, enemy and follower alike. Truly, it was a wonderful feeling to realize that all these mechs would declare to hail him when shouting their war cry, and knowing that other mechs would shiver at his name only made him feel better. Ah, yes, it was wonderful to be a figure of power. But he needed to ensure that this power would not slip away from him…

Stepping into an elevator lit by lights in the ceiling and floor, he turned around as the doors slid shut and the elevator lowered itself at a rapid pace. He reviewed this next project on his trek to domination in his mind one more time, ensuring that he had not missed any holes or weaknesses.

He didn't have to worry about Starscream ruining things; he was in Europe aiding in the war there, and had Decepticons like Blitzwing and Mash to keep him in line. Blitzwing was a naturally good leader and discipliner; he had to be, being leader of the Neo-Nazis. Mash was a bit of a surprise, though; the first recruit the Decepticons had gained upon reawakening after the original war, Megatron had not expected him to last a month, much less rise in the ranks. And yet, Mash had proven to be an _amazing_ and loyal discipliner, but Megatron was more concerned about loyalty; even the dumbest soldiers were good if they were loyal (like Skywarp…).

The elevator came to a smooth stop and emitted a small hum before the doors opened. Stepping through them, Megatron found himself in an enormous dark cavern hundreds of feet below the Sahara Desert and their stolen Breaker Labs base. Lights had been welded and tied to the ceiling and walls and an almost endless array of equipment lined the walls. Decepticon mechanics, engineers, and inventors bustled here and there, working in this private world beneath the world. Here, the workers merely glanced at Megatron, a visitor in their realm, before resuming their work. Most of these mechs had not seen the sun since joining the Decepticons, and it was showing by how they moved around with their lights dim or completely off, able to maneuver in the dark with little to no assistance.

Megatron nodded to the workers then looked up at what he had set them to work on.

A spaceship; enormous even by Transformer standards and as sleek as a proper Cybertronian ship, Megatron had had this thing in the works ever since they had discovered this cavern when they were expanding the base. After all, he needed a proper intergalactic war ship to carry him and his troops to Cybertron to take it over.

"How complete is it?" he inquired to no one in particular, knowing that someone would answer him.

Sure enough, the nearest mech to hear him answered, "Eighty-seven percent, sir. We are installing major components and will need to run it through some stimulations then it will be ready for flight."

"Keep working," Megatron ordered. Raising his voice, he called out, "Decepticons Mextron, Solarflare, Flickword, and Smartmouth: Report to me!"

Of course, the aforementioned soldiers had shown up on time: he had ordered them to be here at an earlier time. Now the mechs appeared from the bustle of the spaceship developers.

Mextron still looked almost too much like Megatron for his own comfort; with an almost identical body lay out, down to the helmet and arm cannon, Mextron's Transformer form clearly showed the world who was his father. On his back were a pair of wings resembling a metallic bird's, but Mextron always held his wings in a way that the feathers pressed together, forming a pair of formidable jet wings in his alt-form. He also had a see through red visor over his optics and a different, younger, handsomer face, but after that, the differences disappeared.

Solarflare was an orange and white Seeker femme who had failed to adopt an Earthling alt mode and hence kept her tetra jet form. She had been apart of a messenger surface before… _falling in_ with the Decepticons' care. She had a turquoise-colored turbo fox kept in a compartment in her chest, whose alt-form was a disk, and was prone to going straight for the face in combat. Solarflare had a strong sense of honor, but had proved herself loyal to Megatron thus far.

Flickword was the most Autobot-looking Transformer in Megatron's ranks. He had armor like Earth's Medieval knights with the antennae and wings of a moth and large optics. His color was lavender with lemon yellow accents, wings, and antennae. At Megatron's request drawn from embarrassment, Flickword had adopted an alternate digital paintjob that made his lavender colors black and his lemon yellow accents a dark orchid color; a more Decepticon-y paint job. Flickword had argued this point and had won the right to wear his actual paint job when not in public. Flickword was named thus because before he had come to Decepticons, he had had a stuttering problem that had caused him to runaway from his home and its bullies in Japan and had gladly fallen in with the Decepticons when he found them. Megatron thought of him as an annoyance, but his strength was useful and both it and Flickword's Autobot-appearance would do well in this next mission.

Smartmouth was the only one Megatron was worried about. As the daughter Effort of Starscream, she had all the snide remarks of her father without the cowardice and frequently argued with Mextron. She, too, held the Seekers' generic body form and jet alt-form and had a paintjob similar to her father's, but was maroon where Starscream was red and dark grey where he was white. She even had the shoulder-mounted null cannons of her father.

_If Mextron is still a good leader among the Decepticon Efforts and is anything like me,_ Megatron thought. _Then it should be no problem for him to crush any rebellion in Smartmouth._

"I have called you here," he spoke announced, "Because I have a special mission for you. This army has grown enough in strength to begin reaching back into space. I know just the way to do this, and it requires creating a jail break in the Asteroid Belt Prison, where most of my old colleagues are serving time…"

- - - -

Swindle was in his enormous warehouse store in the mountains somewhere in America, sitting in a large computer chair and leaning back in it with his feet on a table as he read the latest issue of a car magazine, sipping on energon in one hand while the other flipped through the magazine. The reason why he was not dead or in the Asteroid Belt Prison was that during the Final Battle of the original Autobot-Deception War, he had managed to bargain his way to safety and freedom with a less-than-honorable Autobot foot soldier. That, on top of the fact that he had been reduced to a human size by an accidental shrink ray, had helped Swindle hide on Earth and establish his own personal trading empire under the false identity of Gadgetmaker.

The bell of the warehouse door rang. Swindle looked up then set the magazine and energon down, standing as he tapped at a spot on his chest.

"Sam, can you get that?" he called as a color change came over him, turning his golden yellow to a vibrant orange and his purple into a dark blue.

Quickly, he drew a pair of optic lenses from a compartment in his wrist and installed them, making it appear as if his purple optics were navy blue. Over at the door, a young human with vibrant red hair wearing a dark blue visor over his eyes put one hand on the lever that would order the door open. He glanced one last time at Swindle and tapped his chest. Swindle looked down and saw that his Decepticon insignia was still showing. Flashing the thumbs up sign to Sam, Swindle tapped the insignia and it faded into his armor. Finally, Sam pulled the lever.

The garage doors slid open to reveal a pony-sized robot cat. With slim limbs, dainty paws, and large sky-blue optics, she was a graceful creature, but her armor, red on top with a white underside, was badly burnt and dented. Sam and Swindle exchanged surprised looks, but looked at the Transformer cat when she spoke.

"Please, help!" she panted, "I-I was with a police band b-busting a Breaker Labs base, but the place was cleaned out and-and we must have tripped a booby trap because the building exploded on us! There are a lot of people that are badly hurt and our communications are out, please! We need help!"

Swindle and Sam exchanged looks again. Swindle leaned over and whispered something to Sam. Smiling, Sam nodded then ran over to a large dark grey SUV, tossing things out of its back and putting medical supplies in it. Swindle knelt and petted the feline in a friendly manner.

"Don't worry, little pretty thing," he said, flashing his most friendly grin and polishing his hansom voice to its best tone. "We'll help you. What's your name?"

"Anne," the cat panted, shaking her head away from Swindle's hand, "Autobot Effort Anne."

Behind them, Sam tried to start the SUV, but only got a quiet buzz. Scowling, Sam got out of the SUV and popped the hood. He fiddled with the engine, tried starting the vehicle up again, and failed once more.

"Miss Anne!" Swindle gasped, as if he were surprised, "My goodness, madam, it is an honor to meet you!" He clasped his hands together and said sympathetically, "It's _such_ a tragedy about what happened to Transport City, just a tragedy!"

Sam silently cussed and shook his fists as he came back to the SUV front. He glanced quickly at Swindle and Anne to make sure no one was looking. Turning back to the SUV, he shook a finger at the SUV, as if scolding it. A small string of red-purple lightening zapped from his finger to the SUV and the vehicle responded by revving its engine to life.

"Hurry!" Anne yipped, "There were a lot of people hurt when I left!"

Dropping the hood before getting in the vehicle again, Sam drove it around to park beside the merchant and feline. Swindle opened the passenger door and motioned inside quickly.

"Well then, get in! Get in! We must hurry!" Swindle said excitedly.

Anne jumped into the SUV, moving to the back, and Swindle jumped into the passenger seat. Sam set the SUV off almost before Swindle had got into it and followed Anne's directions through the woods around the mountain.

"My, Miss Anne, you ran all the way here?" Swindle asked.

"Yeah," Anne panted. "Are we there yet?"

"I believe so!" Swindle exclaimed as they exited the woods.

The woods had been cleared by a large expanse for a parking lot and a series of buildings on the edge of the mountain, over looking a valley below. However, the buildings, or rather their remains, were on fire and crumbling in on themselves. Police cars had been completely blown up by the initial explosion and sat on their melting tires as they slowly burned from the inside out. Other police cars and vans had been shoved over onto their sides and even on their backs by the shockwave of the initial explosion. Humans were everywhere, lightly singed, badly injured, or simply dead. The moans of the dying and badly injured intermingled with the crackling flames and the stench of burning flesh and clothes made the smoke of the fire smell like perfume. Swindle and Sam's eyes were instantly attracted to a police car Transformer in the corner of the parking lot and carnage. In his arms he held a smaller black and white femme, appearing to almost be a younger female version of Prowl himself.

"Help me get these supplies to the medics," Anne ordered, crawling right over Swindle and jumping out of the car window. "Do you have a radio we can use to contact help? Ours got messed up in the wake of the blast. They're recovering, but not fast enough…"

"Sam, help Miss Anne help her friends here," Swindle ordered the human as he placed a finger to the side of his head. "I'll contact help."

"Right, Mr. Gadgetmaker, sir!" Sam agreed in his Brooklyn accent, nodding.

Swindle-alias-Gadgetmaker watched Anne and Sam move the supplies out to the injured police men, making sure that no one was watching him before he finally accessed a communication link code.

"Hello?" he said quietly as a small, clever smile crossed his metal face, "Yeah, it's your old _swindler_ here; interested in picking off some Autobot Efforts, easy-like? No? Are you sure? These kids can become something of an awful pain in the skid plate if you don't deal with them now. Question you? No, of course not! Why would I ever do that? Well, that's your choice, but I have something else to tell you. I don't think he'll mind me telling you, but… I know what you're looking for, and I just want to tell you that it's right here with me."

Swindle looked over at Sam as he set a chest of medical supplies down near by.

"How long? Oh, I'd say ever since I picked him up when he was running around Italy… He's just been hanging with me, waiting for destiny to come and, shall we say, take his hand? Oh, yeah, we've been planning this a long time. Just letting you know; he'll be with the Autobot Efforts when ever you want him. Talk about a great spy, eh? Why am I telling you this? Well, let's just say that I know a good potential _customer_ when I see one. Yeap, you too. Until next time, my friend."

Swindle cut off the communications link as Sam passed by the SUV. They exchanged looks and Swindle nodded, flashing the thumbs up sign to Sam. Sam smirked then continued on with his work.

- - - -

Autobot Effort Max, son of Bumblebee, was not known for his intelligence. Hence, if one were to find him on the floor on his stomach in a recreational room of the mountain-embedded intergalactic Autobot ship, the _Ark_, with a large sheet of paper in front of him, a pencil in one hand, and a doughnut in the other, they would assume he was doodling and move on. They would do a double take if they realized that he was actually making an effort to think.

Go ahead, do that double take…

"Okay," he muttered, drawing a line across the center of the paper. "If the rest of the Autobot Efforts and me were born eighteen years ago…"

He jotted down a simple "us" over the center of the line and drew a dash on the line to mark the point.

"Then, let's see, according to the reports, Shockwave's son, the hot chick, and Megatron Junior from Hell were older than us, so that would put them before us; okay, not bad, it's to be expected. They are, after all, our prototypes. Wow, saying it like that sounds weird…"

He jotted down the simple initials of FF, SM, and Mex on a random bit of line to the left of the first dash, adding a dash for emphasis again.

"But the cutie little brats that totally owned Benjamin's butt were born _after_ us."

Again, he initialed and dashed SL and CW on the time line, this time to the right of the Autobot Efforts' dash.

"So, wait, if they were born after us, when prototypes weren't needed, then why did Breaker Labs make them?" he asked aloud. "And that last dude, the blue-haired creep, Mr. Strong and Silent, when was _he_ born? Wait, he was older than anyone else, right? No, no, he was younger. Maybe he was our age, but looked younger, or older? Or—"

Max growled in frustration and stuffed a doughnut in his mouth before rolling over on his back, holding the paper and pencil over him. He failed to recognize the distant hiss of a landing spacecraft outside.

"Man, I'm confused," he grunted through a mouthful of white powdered sugar doughnut.

"Man, I'm _exhausted,_" Josh groaned, entering the recreational room and falling down into a chair. "Flying takes a lot out of you!"

"Well, you gotta admit, kid," Ironhide said, entering the room. "Flying in a _Portuguese hurricane_ isn't exactly a cake walk. Nice work, kid."

"Yeah," Jazz agreed, following Ironhide into the room and flopping onto the couch beside Josh. "Nice work, kid, especially for your first major mission!"

To add emphasis to his compliment, Jazz wrapped an arm around Josh's neck and rubbed his knuckles playfully on Josh's helmet. The silver visor of Josh's helmet flicked up, revealing extremely pale blue optics beneath.

"Hey!" he laughed, "I get it! I get it! Now knock it off! So, do I get my own Transformer name now?"

"Sure," Jazz agreed. "I was thinking Neophyte, or Bitmap."

"Neophyte means 'new guy' and Bitmap makes me sound like a computer genius or geek or something," Josh complained.

"Okay, how about Silverhawk?"

"Nah, 'hawk's' been done in so many names it's not even funny."

"Shank?"

"Do I _look_ like I've been to prison?"

"Silverstreak!"

"Been done before."

"Archangel Josh!"

"Too dramatic."

"_The_ Josh!"

"How's this for you: _The_ wrestling looser."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Yes!"

Ironhide knelt beside Max curiously as Josh and Jazz tackled each other and began to wrestle playfully.

"What're you working on there, kiddo?" he asked.

"Something—"Max began.

"Hey, Josh!" a new voice piped up.

A white, red, and green Autobot with a face mask and enormous side ear fins, Wheeljack, entered the room with Jack Turbine, his human apprentice, on his shoulder. Jack Turbine wore his favorite stained and burnt lab coat with a pair of goggles on his forehead, pushing up his spiked light brown hair. Following them was Michelangelo. Skyfire remained outside, where he was more comfortable in the open space.

"Hey, Jacks," Max greeted.

"Woha, hey!" Ironhide exclaimed, jumping up and backing away from them exaggeratedly. "I like my body in one piece, thank you!"

"Relax, we're off duty," Wheeljack assured as he set Jack down on the recreation room's table. Michelangelo went over to Max while Jack slid down a table leg and joined them.

"Hey, what's that?" Michelangelo, informally known as MJ (Because MA was too awkward), asked.

"Something about the ages of all the Efforts is really confusing me," Max said, sitting up and showing his friends his timeline. "So I took some rarely used advice from good-old school and drew a time line of the Efforts' births—"

"Woha, hold up!" Jazz exclaimed, breaking from his wrestling match. "_You_ actually put your processor to use??"

"Yes," Max sighed, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I was right: There are two really little Decepticon Efforts, the ones Benjamin saw in the garden way back in Transport City, and the kids of Skywarp and Thundercracker, right? So they're younger than us, which means they were created after us. My bone to pick is this: If we had already been created, thus ending the use of Project Smelting—or Abominations, as Breaker Labs called it—then why did they even make the little kids?"

"Who knows who cares?" Ironhide snorted, getting a cube of energon from the dispensing machine in the corner. "Those dirty, no-good, double-crossing liars played on the worlds' desire for a better peace bond and offered to make us kids, only to twist that promise by making those _abominations_ of off spring for the Decepticons. Then they let the Decepticons live long enough for them to get out, on top of that! For all we know, they made the little Seeker squats because they just wanted a full set. Damn freaks, I can't wait until Prowl's team and the other Efforts haul some Breaker Lab employee aft in to kick around for answers…"

As if summoned by his name, the _Ark_'s communications systems crackled to life and Prowl spoke, his voice muffled and quiet from distance.

_"Autobot Prowl to base; the Breaker Labs headquarters we raided was empty and booby trapped, killing almost half our squad and injuring the rest. Requesting emergency transportation as quickly as possible…"_

Everyone froze in shock, even the cheery Josh and Jazz. As one, everyone looked at Ironhide. Ironhide's optics were wide open in shock and his jaw had dropped open. One of his optics twitched as his energon cube slowly slipped from his fingers. It had not even hit the ground before he had transformed and, with an enraged engine roar not usual of his van alt mode, sped out of the room, leaving rubber burn marks on the tiled floor.

"Skyfire!!" he roared at the top of his metallic, metaphorical lungs, "Charge up NOW!!!"

- - - - -

Her home was near an enormous scrap yard where the rust of the scrap created a fine dust that

covered everything like it was an American Dust Bowl. Around the scrap yard, quite a few Transformers had started a living by fixing up things to save them from the scarp yard, scavenging out useful bits, or processing metal for a better price than the yard. Her own father worked at creating and repairing vehicles that way a mech's beloved, age-old, memory-worn space cruiser or hover bike wouldn't have to be thrown away simply because it was old.

Outside, her home looked somewhat run down, with large tin sheets making up a fence and numerous bits and pieces of metal strewn all about the rust dust-filled yard and along its sides. The home itself was small, but the perfect size for a family of two. Inside, though, the home was clean and pristine with the usual polished metal and hard surfaces and everything outfitted as it should be.

Entering the yard through a gap in the fencing, she saw that her father was currently in the yard, repairing a part for another mech. The teal green and pale blue Transformer looked up and smiled as he waved a greeting hand.

"Hey, Alias! How was school?" he called.

Alias flashed a thumbs-up sign, looking at her father's customer before bolting into the home.

"Don't mind her, she's just shy," the father told his customer.

"Ah, I know how that feels, Dudbud," the customer chuckled. "My own kids can still hardly talk to strangers without hiding behind me. By the way, did you hear? They say that the Autobots are getting complains from the Cybertronian Counsel!"

"Really, now?" Dudbud asked. "For what?"

"Eh, military and political jargon is beyond me, but basically I think it has to do with them and their Efforts."

"Huh, hope they'll be okay," Dudbud said, handing the completed part to his customer.

"Me too," the customer agreed.

Alias, over hearing inside the house, mutely agreed.

- - - - -

_**Light! Light! Juggernaut no like light! Juggernaut know that light bad! With light came pain! With light came sharp, pointy needles poking into Juggernaut's hard skin, making Juggernaut experience pain like no other! Oh no, not light! Not light! Light burn Juggernaut's eyes, light make Juggernaut's feet burn when floor spit painful sparks, light mean pain. No! Juggernaut no like this! What did Juggernaut do wrong! Juggernaut want out! Juggernaut want out of room to kill pain maker! Kill the pain maker!**_

_**Face on wall: What does face on wall mean, Juggernaut wonder? Maybe funny red face is pain maker, attack pain maker, attack red face! Wait; pain lessen now. Yes, red face pain maker! But Juggernaut not dumb; Juggernaut know that red face on wall is not actual pain maker. Yes, Juggernaut would find actual red face pain maker and kill the pain maker!**_

- - - -

Moriguchi nodded in approval when he saw Juggernaut rip apart the Autobot insignia on the wall.

"With a little discipline," he muttered. "It's easy to train a beast. Which reminds me of preparation, which I must add…"

He turned to the messenger standing near him.

"Did the Governor of California transfer the funds yet?" he asked, "We need to guy a fresh load of chemicals soon or we are going to find ourselves in a sore spot indeed."

"Yes, sir, he has, but he is insisting that he gets the central States as well as the western coast for 'bleeding him dry' so much, and the fact that funding us is putting him at huge risk for a scandal."

"Pfft. You tell that fat dolt that if he wanted to stay away from scandals, then he shouldn't have become a member of the BLOOD. Also remind him that without his participation, he, his family and friends, and his precious west coast will all burn when the revolution day comes. Take _that_ to him, and tell him to make sure that our stations in California aren't investigated by the Autobots."

The messenger saluted and left. Behind Moriguchi, a bestial roar ripped out of his pet monster and a panel of wall bearing the Autobot insignia crashed into the viewing room's window, sending a spider web of cracks across its surface. Moriguchi merely strode out of the room, moving on to more important business.


	5. Untrue Allies

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, characters, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 5: Untrue Allies**

Becky turned her white metal hand over, looking at the black wrist cuff, which led to a white arm that connected to a black shoulder and neck. Her pretty hour glass shaped figure followed into her Transformer form, being all white with a black hip area, boots, wrist cuffs, shoulders, and collar. She even shared her father's same red horns, although hers were far shorter, and her helmet was more like a motorcycle police man's. Indeed, she looked exactly like a younger femme version of Prowl.

"How…?" she whispered.

"You must have been struck by some shrapnel when the building exploded," Prowl said, yanking a large shard of metal from his shoulder. He grunted in pain then waved the energon-stained shrapnel bit at Becky as he went on, "You know, I know I'm a Transformer, but that explosion packed a punch, especially if I still get banged up when I'm _right_ outside of an exploding building. Oww… Well, I'm just glad you're okay, Amethyst."

At that last bit, Prowl smiled as he dropped the shrapnel and hugged Becky.

"It's _Becky,_ Dad," Becky chuckled when Prowl used her real name, returning the hug. "Oh, which reminds me: Now that I'm a Transformer, when do I get my Transformer name?"

"One thing at a time, sweetie, one time at a one time," Prowl chuckled.

Benjamin looked away from the two police car Transformers, glanced over to the SUV where Gadgetmaker and Sam were discussing a matter of supplies with Anne. Getting up from where he had finished helped splinting a police officer's broken leg he walked over to the Transformers as casually as he could.

"Hey," he said quietly, getting Prowl's and Becky's attention. "Is it me, or is there something weird about the pair that Anne picked up?"

Benjamin was mildly surprised when Becky nodded and replied, "Yeah, there's _defiantly_ something weird about them. My head isn't buzzing when they sat that they're a couple of mountain merchants, so they're not lying, and I don't hear a whistling, so they're not Decepticon Efforts. But there's just something off about them. I mean, what are they doing so high up on a mountain in the middle of nowhere? And where did they get all the medical supplies, or the SUV?"

"From a store," Jess said, limping as she walked into the conversation. "Okay, I scouted the area, no more booby traps. I managed to catch the tail end of what you said; the weird couple got the stuff from a store, let's assume that and leave it at that. I'm tired, I'm cranky, my ankle's killing me, and where the hell is my gun!?"

"I don't like leaving it at just that, Jess," Benjamin said. "What happens if they're members of Breaker Labs, here to finish off what the booby trap started?"

"Hey, at least they're not Decepticons," Anne grunted, padding over to them. "We can always thank that. Man, my feet are killing me from running all over the place, and do you realize how hard it is to tie a tourniquet without thumbs? Damn _hard_, I tell you!"

She stopped by Prowl, crouched, and jumped, landing on his up-turned knee in his sitting position. She sat erect on the knee, like an Egyptian cat statue as she lifted a paw and began to lick it. No one bothered to point out her feline activity; she just couldn't resist the compulsion of it.

"Anyway," Anne went on, "We better get some mode of mass transportation here _ASAP_, or half of the police men aren't going to live to see morning—"

As if to obey her wishes, a bright light appeared overhead as a massive engine roared to a stop overhead. Everyone looked up as the enormous white jet form of Skyfire landed gently on the smoldering ruins of the Breaker Labs headquarters. The first one down the ramp was Ironhide, charging into the police men-strewn parking lot like he was running to battle, complete with a gun in hand. Jazz and Josh followed him, then Max and MJ. Max stopped at the end of the ramp and looked around at the blackened, ruined walls that had lost their flames and were slowly cooling.

"Hey," he said. "Wasn't there supposed to be a building here…?"

"Come on, Max," MJ said, "Let's get these guys on board. It looks like they need a hospital…"

"Jess," Ironhide bellowed, "Where are ya?"

"Right here, Daddy," Jess called, waving up at the red robot.

On lookers feared that Ironhide would squish Jess as he bolted over to her, but he dropped his gun and gently and quickly picked Jess up in his hands, holding her close to himself.

"Oh, Jess, my little fire keg!" he gasped, "Aw, Primus, when I got the message I got so scared…"

"D-dad," Jess wheezed. "C-can't breathe."

Ironhide released Jess and held her at arm's length, chuckling nervously, "Oops, eh hee, sorry."

Ironhide set Jess on his shoulder and began to help load the injured humans onto Skyfire while Josh and Jazz went over to help Prowl and Becky to their feet.

"So, Prowl, what—"Jazz began to ask Becky.

"Dad," Josh barked, "That's Becky!"

Jazz looked at Josh, then at Becky, then at Prowl, then at Becky again, and looked her up and down one last time.

"Huh," he muttered. "So it is…"

He took Prowl to the side and began to talk to him while Becky turned to Josh.

"Wow, how'd you know it was me?" Becky asked.

"How can I forget such a beautiful face?" Josh said, winking playfully. "And you gotta admit: Metal looks _good_ on you, wonderful."

"Oh, no," Benjamin muttered, slapping a hand over his face.

Josh leaped back and out of the way of Becky's slapping hand. He ran away from her, doing a clear back flip over Sam and Gadgetmaker's SUV. He accidentally clipped the SUV as he flew over it, making it rock on its wheels.

"Hey, hey, hey," Sam yelled at Josh, adding style with his Brooklyn dialect, "Watch the wheels, man!"

"Oh, hey, who are these guys?" Josh asked, turning to Sam and Gadgetmaker.

"The name's Sam," Sam said before waving a hand at Gadgetmaker, "And this is my boss, Gadgetmaker. He and I run a respectable trading post business here on the mountain when the weather's nice. You'd be surprised at who passes through here in the summer time."

"Really, like who?" Benjamin said as he and Becky came over to the SUV and into the conversation.

"Eh, hippies and jocks lookin' for a place to get funny with their girls, mostly," Sam said with a careless shrug, pronouncing "girls" as "goyles", "And sometimes the hunters."

"Do you ever see anyone more 'professional looking'?" Benjamin asked, "Someone that may have looked like they may be working at a science lab?"

"Oh, you mean like someone who worked at a place like that?" Sam asked, jerking a thumb at the Breaker Lab base's ruins, "Oh, yeah, sure, sure, all the time."

"What were they looking for? When did you see them?"

"Well, info costs money—"Sam began.

Gadgetmaker elbowed Sam in the side and Sam instantly changed his sentence, "Which is why they couldn't keep our mouths shut. About five years ago a bunch of fellahs in suits kept coming to our place, saying they want to buy our plot of land and tell us to get the heck out of here. We dug our heels in, said hell no, underlined with some _physical _accents—"

Another elbow to the ribs.

"And their guys and our team came to a little agreement: We leave them alone, and they leave us alone, so we did and that's how it went. 'Course; there was an occasional explosion and panic siren in the distance, but nothing serious."

"Did you see them leave?"

"Leave?" Sam asked, "Heh, who _didn't_ see them leave? Those shmucks were hauling everything from semis to vans down the only road on this dang mountain and everyone and anyone who lived by it saw them go! Well, at least, if they were awake at two o' clock in the morning they saw 'em. Left on a Thursday, the twelfth; I can remember because that was the day a hunter hauled this _huge_ buck to our place. And I mean _huge_, like, Big Foot-rode-it-like-a-horse-and-ate-it-for-dinner huge—"

"The twelfth," Benjamin muttered. "That's just three days ago. How many vehicles do you think were in the caravan, Mr. Sam, Mr. Gadgetmaker?"

"Just Sam and Gadgetmaker, boss," Sam chuckled.

"Mmm, I'd say sixteen vehicles all together," Gadgetmaker said. "I can remember because I was enjoying a mug of late-night energon and counted all their lights when I saw them coming around the bend."

"A caravan of that size _couldn't_ have just passed through towns unnoticed," Becky said, "Even if they traveled by night."

"Exactly, Becky," Benjamin agreed. "I'm going to contact Wheeljack and Little Jack back at base and have them scan through all the security and street camera footage of the surrounding three hundred miles. That caravan _has_ to appear on _one_ reel _somewhere!"_

"Uh, hey, I can help, ya know," Sam said when he exchanged looks with Gadgetmaker, "I know this place like the back of my hand. I know the blind spots of the cameras and can point out all the hidden places. And, uh, I'm a good mechanic."

"After _this_ disaster, we need all the help we can get," Benjamin replied with a grateful tone, "Your assistance is accepted. Get ready to ship out with in half an hour."

With that announced, Benjamin turned and bolted back to Skyfire, running into the ship to contact their men back at base. Josh and Becky, meanwhile, went over to Jazz and Prowl to report the latest developments.

Max, with the majority of the police men loaded and currently unoccupied, wandered around the borders of the now abandoned and ruined Breaker Labs' base perimeter, looking at the remains of the buildings, the cars, and the woods surrounding them. He did grinded on the borders of the parking lot and did some tricks off the more-intact cop cars, just generally occupying himself. Coming up to the SUV on once side with Gadgetmaker and Sam on the other, he noticed that the passenger door was open.

Curious, Max leaned into the vehicle and looked over it: the plush light brown seats, the matching, smooth light brown dashboard plastic, the chrome-finished radio board, and the all around well-cleaned, new-car smell was, as always, alluring. He briefly imagined dashing across the beach in such a vehicle before fantasizing in all the places he could park it in a cool skateboard trick set up.

"Nice…" Max whispered.

Spying the glove box between the seats, Max lifted the lid up, curious as to what was in the box. Suddenly, a vivid yellow-orange and navy blue metal hand slammed down on the box cover, slamming it shut.

"Hey!" Gadgetmaker barked sternly, "That's private property!"

Like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, Max's hand flew up and back, bonking the back of it against Gadgetmaker's chest as he did so. For the briefest instant, Max saw something glimmer into being on Gadgetmaker's chest before the mountain merchant turned away, quickly tapping at his chest.

"You're Max, Bumblebee's kid, right?" Gadgetmaker asked. He wasn't mad, but neither was he friendly.

"Y-Yeah," Max replied. In his head, he was going over what he had seen on Gadgetmaker's chest; a shimmering purple light, outlining something. Was it--? Yes, it was most defiantly—

While Max's mind was going into over time, Gadgetmaker looked at Sam, glanced over his shoulder at Max, then at Sam again. Sam nodded then walked around the front of the SUV to Max.

"Hey, Maxi boy," Sam growled, standing in front of Max. Max had to look up at the red-haired boy; Max only came up to his chest. Sam leaned against the passenger door and slammed it shut. Judging by the stormy look on his face, he was _not_ happy about something.

"What makes you so special?" he asked.

"Well, I'm a total wizard on the board—"Max began.

"Something _useful_," Sam interrupted.

Max blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Can you fight? Can you fix people up? Can you repair Transformers? Can you invent stuff? Can you do _anything_?"

"I can do plenty of stuff!" Max defended, "Just… none of that," was the pathetic addition."

"So, you're dead weight eh, Maxi boy?" Sam chuckled darkly, shaking his head. "You _really_ think that you're worth something and hence, keep going into the action field with your non-existent skills to 'help'? Well, I got some advice for you, kiddo.

"Do your friends a favor and just _forget it_," Sam snarled, "Just forget everything and leave the Decepticon-fighting to the _pros. _You think you're useful? You think you're tough? You think you got what it takes to fight _Decepticons_? Everyone knows what happened to Transport City: It sunk because of _you_. _You_ ticked the wrong Decepticon off and hence, Transport City _sunk_ to the _bottom_ of the _sea_ and took who _knows_ how many innocent lives with it, all because of _you_. Oh, and don't even get me started on the survivors," Sam said, shaking his head, "All those people are homeless, jobless, lifeless, and imagine how _scared_ they must be going to sleep, night after night, wondering where lost loved ones are, and whether they'll see the missing again, all because _you_ destroyed their home! You think you're a hero? How can you be cut out for a hero…"

Sam turned away from him, adding a dramatic affect that said that he didn't think Max was worth looking at.

"When you've already killed so many people?"

Max's mouth moved helplessly, blinking slowly in confused hurt. Where had all that come from? But what he had said about Transport City…

"Hey!" Max exclaimed, "It wasn't my fault! I was just—he—Rumble—the Decepticons—I—I—"

"'I' _what_, Max," Sam snarled, turning quickly back to Max. "'I didn't know what I was doing'? 'I didn't mean to'? What are you doing, making up excuses, just like you _always_ do? Everyone knows how you live, Max; you were always a spot light hog growing up. Just when Bumblebee was on the brink of making a good welfare plan in China, or fixing the foster system in Utah, or opening a national orphanage in Australia, he would have to be called away because _you_ broke some window or ruined some art exhibit or broke an arm doing some stupid trick and he would have to drop _everything_ he was doing just to help his little boy."

Sam said the last bit with sarcasm, throwing his hands up in the air in show. As he spoke, Gadgetmaker went about the SUV, closing doors quietly, sorting things out, and glancing over at Benjamin, Prowl, Becky, Josh, and Jazz on the other side of the parking lot, who were in the midst of a sort of council. Sam, meanwhile, continued to be the spokesman of hundreds of humans and Transformers alike out there who needed someone to blame for their misfortune upon the sinking of Transport City.

"Face it, Maxi, boy," Sam sneered, "You're a spoiled, stupid brat, and Bumblebee and the Autobots, not to mention _Transport City_, would have been better off if you had _never been born_."

- - - - -

Moriguchi watched Juggernaut's antics from the safety of his own office on his computer. The hideous freak of nature ripped into the drone branded with the Autobot insignia with all the eagerness of a child unwrapping a Christmas present. Moriguchi didn't even flinch when metal guts, slick and gooey with oil, splattered onto the wall.

_Hmm, _he thought. _At this rate the brute will be ready for some action again in no time._

His phone rang at that moment and he picked it up.

"_Hello?"_

"Oh hell no, not you again," Moriguchi groaned.

"_Yeah, it's your old swindler here; interested in picking off some Autobot Efforts, easy-like?"_

"No," Moriguchi growled.

Anything Swindle knew, Moriguchi knew last week. The merchant was a master at selling cheap knock offs and weapons, but that's all he was: That annoying little man in the back alley trying to sell you false watched. He had been good at one time, back when he was twenty-some feet tall and was a household name when talking about Decepticons. But he had gotten rusty with misuse and being trapped with in a small body and smaller reputation. The merchant would never reach his full potential ever again if he would always be half a conman.

"_No? Are you sure? These kids can become something of an awful pain in the skid plate if you don't deal with them now."_

"Are you questioning my choice of action?" Moriguchi growled. Now Swindle would back off, being a little aft kisser in hopes of grooming his customer into buying something.

"_Question you? No, of course not! Why would I ever do that?"_

"Just break the Efforts up," Moriguchi growled, "They are a threat to my organization's goals and plans as long as they are united."

"_Well, that's your choice, but I have something else to tell you. I don't think he'll mind me telling you, but… I know what you're looking for, and I just want to tell you that it's right here with me."_

Moriguchi was just looking to have his co-workers murdered, but okay, this was just as good. He decided to pretend that he knew what Swindle was talking about.

"Really now?" he inquired. "How long has it been with you, Swindle?"

Ugh, saying that name made bugs crawl up Moriguchi's spine as he remembered that he was talking to a sentient machine. He never liked Transformers; they were just so _weird_ and not human. He was fully racist against such tools and looked forward to melting them all down for weapons when he was in control.

"_How long? Oh, I'd say ever since I picked him up when he was running around Italy… He's just been hanging with me, waiting for destiny to come and, shall we say, take his hand? Oh, yeah, we've been planning this a long time. Just letting you know; he'll be with the Autobot Efforts when ever you want him. Talk about a great spy, eh?"_

Running in Italy… could it be? He had been looking for that little brat ever since he had run away. Was it possible that the boy just might have escaped over the sand dunes and come to a civilization, getting as far as even the birth place of humanity's best art works? Well, no matter; as long as the brat kept his sight on money and mischief, he could burn for all Moriguchi cared.

"Why are you telling me this?" Moriguchi asked.

"_Why am I telling you this? Well, let's just say that I know a good potential customer when I see one."_

"Oh, go put yourself into a smelter, bolts-for-brains," Moriguchi snapped.

" _Yeap, you too. Until next time, my friend."_

Moriguchi couldn't help but smirk in amusement as the phone line went dead and he hung up. He had to admit, at least, that Swindle had a way of insulting you without angering you. He dialed another number, contacting another member of his organization. Soon, he had the political figures of his organization on the speaker phone for him.

"Gentlemen," he announced. "I believe that the time is ripe for us to start in our plans. First, though, we must remove the obstacles that threaten to destroy our careful, patient constructions. I was hoping that you could lend a hand by filing some _complaints_ to the Cybertron Counsel."


	6. Battle of the Blitzwing

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 6: Battle of the Blitzwing**

Dawn time had come once again and the sun light was only limited by the cloudy skies over head and the mist surrounding the town. There were no sounds of breakfast being cooked, of cars starting up as men went to work, of kids talking as they went to the school bus stop, or of noisy traffic in the town. Everyone had evacuated when the military had come, warning them that the distant booms they had heard beyond their borders was, in fact, the sounds of the Neo-Nazi army, crawling out of its numerous hiding places to attack and conquer the land. Upon this announcement, the villagers had moved out and the United Nation powers had moved in.

At times, it seemed like the horrifically powerful force that was the Neo-Nazis was a sort of cancer, sprouting from what one had thought was a safe field or area or storage warehouse and spreading until excess force had to be exercised or risk loosing the land to the enemy Nazis and their Decepticon allies. By placing a little bit of Neo-Nazi forces in a million hiding spots and not massing them together in one enormous camp like traditional armies, combined with their Decepticon guardians, the Neo-Nazis proved to be clever as well as strong.

The Decepticons…

Primus, it would have been hard enough stopping an army that had scores of small, but powerful squadrons hidden all over Europe on their own. But with the Decepticons acting as the Neo-Nazi's dark guardian angels, it made them nearly invincible. It was like the Neos were the main army, but the Decepticons were the dragons of old summoned from pits and high clouds alike to fly over head and dish out awesome, impressive damage to the enemy troops. Only the massive sacrificing of brave men and hard, harsh fighting kept the Neos back. But how long it could _keep_ them back remained the question.

A stray dog that had not followed the human villagers out of town began to bark, making Optimus leave his thoughts and look around as he got to his feet. Beside him, a tank with four French soldiers, too, looked up when they heard the dog barking. What was it barking at?

A small engine puttered onto the street and a yellow Buggy came out of the thick mist. Sighs of relief came from the humans and Optimus alike as Bumblebee stopped and changed into robot mode.

"Bumblebee," Optimus breathed, placing a hand to his forehead, "You scared us!"

"Sorry, Prime," Bumblebee apologized, "But orders from this sector's general: No more communication link using. The Decepticons might be listening in; oral reports only."

"Smart choice," Optimus complimented, although inside, he was cringing at the idea of how slow deliberate face-to-face reports could be, "Report."

"All clear, sir," Bumblebee complied, "No one's spotted anything from the Neo-Nazis: They appear to be taking a break after their last batch of chaos. Everything on the Autobot side is fine. Decepticon Lieutenant Mash's forces have successfully been stopped fourteen miles out side of London and the Royal British Air Force is giving them hell. The most excitement we've had all night is when Ratchet kicked Sunstreaker's and Sideswipe's aft for racing in the open."

"For once, I approve of Ratchet's actions," Optimus sighed. "Racing on these roads is a sure way to get those twins killed, what, with the perfect sniper points on the high hills and all, not to mention booby traps…"

He had thought he had experienced every style of war possible as a Prime, but here on Earth, there were, literally, hundreds of hiding places to go with every square mile. Humans were younger than Transformers, and proved not to be so violent as to openly rip each others' guts out like the worst of Transformers, but they were sheer geniuses at war. Guerilla, pincher-formations, intelligent retreats into traps, forcing enemy troops into a bottle neck, hiding many small forces in replacement of a few large forces; all these tactics and more had Optimus learning from his human army partners every day to the point where his processor ached. It was becoming nerve-wracking for him as he waited fro an attack that never came.

- - - -

Meanwhile, on a hill over looking the town, the small group was being watched.

"Shall we attack, General Blitzwing, sir?"

The black-haired, square-chinned man turned his dried-blood eyes on his second-in-command, a hansom man with pale blue eyes and slicked-back blond hair. The man, Willium Walter, was a trusted colleague of Blitzwing the Second, but he had little respect from the other soldiers, being called things like a "poster boy" and "pet". But Blitzwing had seen Willium at his worst and knew him to be like a dingo: Hansom, loyal, adorable, even, but a pure monster at heart with the ability to rip you limb from limb.

Beyond him a force of the Neos were waiting for orders: Tanks, jeeps, trucks, men, the works. The majority of Decepticons were with their semi-leader, Mash, trying to get into London; a massive target reserved for massive forces. Now Decepticon Effort Blitzwing nodded to his second-in-command.

"Yes, Willium," he told the second-in-command. "Signal the attack."

Willium turned around, taking a bright red handkerchief from his pocket and waved it over his head at the waiting troops. As one, the soldiers mounted their metal, wheel-bound steeds of the modern world as quietly as they could and moved forward. A red glow grew into existence and disappeared behind Willium. By the time he turned around, a tan, black, and purple jet was shooting out over the town.

- - - -

Optimus and Bumblebee, as well as their human companions, looked up when the hansom, undeniable sound of ripping air and jets roaring into battle sounded out over head: The modern world's charging trumpets. Before Optimus could even shout out the name of their foes, bombs and invisible bullets rained down from above, shattering glass and blowing apart buildings. A tan, black, and purple jet moved on deeper in town with a red and white jet at its wing. A black and dark, dark blue and a black and dark, dark purple jet flew low over their street and transformed. The second tackled Optimus while the first flew circles around Bumblebee before kicking at his head. Bumblebee ducked before Thundercracker landed and they entered combat.

"Hello, _Prime_," Skywarp, meanwhile, sneered to Optimus as he sat on the Autobot leader's chest. "You know, last time we were in the same _hemisphere_, your kid, Benjamin, was it? Yeah, Ben held a sword to my kid's throat, Shadowleap. Not too happy about that."

With this said, Skywarp slammed a fist into Optimus' face. A solid _clang _noise sounded out and Skywarp yelled aloud in pain as he shook his hand. Optimus wasn't even fazed. Optimus yanked at his gun and shoved it to Skywarp's chest, ready to finish him off. But even as his metal finger pulled the trigger, Skywarp disappeared with a pop of purple light and reappeared behind Optimus, his own gun drawn. Optimus rolled over and jumped to his feet, barely escaping a headshot that left a crater in the pavement. The humans, mean while, were calling out for help as they went into combat with Neo-Nazi forces that were attempting to enter the town through their street.

- - - -

Meanwhile, Blitzwing and his companion had come over the main United Nation army's base, stationed in and around old movie theatre. The two flew up, spinning around each other in show, before transforming and landing on the theatre's roof. One was Blitzwing, as recognized by his long, tinted-blue face, black gloves and boots, and monocle. His comrade… need we introduce him?

"Ha, ha!" the red and white Seeker cackled, raining shoulder-mounted null cannon fire and hand-held laser gun fire upon the UN troops below, "Yes, run, humans, run! Run for your _pathetic_, miserable lives!"

"Just take out their main vehicles, Starscream," Cold Blitzwing reminded, looking down at a line of trucks. "That way they can not run away for backup."

The cannons on Blitzwing's shoulders adjusted themselves before blasting twin shots of crystal down upon the trucks. When they touched the metal and ground, they expanded exaggeratedly, covering three trucks and the ground around them with thick ice as blue as Blitzwing's face.

"Ice?" Starscream sneered, "We want to kill them, not cool their lemonade! Try something a little more… _explosive._"

Blitzwing's face suddenly spun around without actually moving his head, changing his pale blue face into that of a thick-chinned, visor-wearing, snarling red face with a noticeable protruding tooth.

"**You want explosive!?"** the red face of Hot Head Blitzwing snarled, **"I'll give you explosive!"**

True to his word, once more Blitzwing aimed his shoulder-mounted cannons at the trucks, but rather than shoot down ice, it blasted two columns of enormous, forceful flames on the unfortunate vehicles. Instantly the trucks leaped high on their tires as their flammable fluids exploded and the tire rubber melted instantly, releasing the air violently. The trucks slammed back down on their disintegrated wheels, slumping over like defeated drunks. It all looked very much like an animated sequence.

"Much better," Starscream snickered. He didn't even bother acknowledging the bullets that pinged off of him from the humans below.

At that moment, an ambulance and two Lamborghinis, one yellow and one red, ripped around the corner as they sped to the chaotic theatre. Blitzwing's face changed, this time exposing a black and red jack-o-lantern appearance of Random Blitzwing. This face looked over at the trio of new-comer cars.

"Ooh, look, playmates!" Random Blitzwing laughed. He jerked as someone's high-powered artillery crashed into his chest, shaking him but doing little to damage him. "Ouch, and not a moment to soon: These playmates play too rough!"

Turning his sights on the humans firing up at them from the parking lot below, Random Blitzwing released a wild volley of a mixture of flames and ice from either shoulder cannon. Suddenly, he drew a gun from his waist with both hands and shot down into the parking lot, failing to aim and laughing hysterically as the humans broke formation and fled.

"Quite that," Starscream growled, running to the edge of the roof. "We have more _important_ 'playmates' to shoot."

Leaping high off the roof, Starscream plummeted to the three vehicles below as they pulled up to a stop. As he came down, the yellow Lamborghini transformed into a robot kneeling on one knee on the floor. The wing-like protrusions on either side of the robot's face were nearly symmetrical, but the right one was slightly dinged up. The right optic was gone, covered up by a rounded-cornered, brown-metal eye patch.

Just as Starscream was about to land on the yellow Lamborghini, the Autobot stood up, catching Starscream's feet in his hands and knocking him, spinning, from his course. Starscream cried out in frustration before he landed in a general store.

"Sideswipe, Ratchet: You guys take out the schizophrenic," Sunstreaker yelled over the sounds of battle that was now filling the streets from all around, keeping his optic fixed on Starscream as he crawled out of the rubble. "I'll take out the _chicken_."

"Who are you calling chicken, Willie-One eye!?" Starscream snarled.

"Actually," Blitzwing informed, switching to Cold mode temporarily. "Schizophrenia and split personalities are two different mental conditions, as schizophrenia is merely loosing touch with reality while split personalities, literally, are different conscious' locked in one vessel."

He changed back to Random.

"And did somebody say chicken?" Random Blitzwing laughed, dropping down in front of the red Lamborghini and ambulance as they both transformed into their robot counterparts. "Ooh, I like chicken nuggets!"

"Wow, he really _is_ crazy," Sideswipe said as he exchanged looks with Ratchet.

"I hate this guy," Ratchet growled, drawing his gun.

Sunstreaker crouched then leaped forward, tackling Starscream back into the ruined building that had been his cushioned landing. Sideswipe, meanwhile, attempted to attack Blitzwing from the side, but danced back as Blitzwing sent an ice and a fire blast at him. While the Decepticon Effort was distracted, Ratchet shot at him. Blitzwing barely managed to drop his shoulder in time to avoid allowing it to be shot out. The red and black jack-o-lantern face stared at Ratchet with an eerie blankness before suddenly switching to Cold Blitzwing. Cold Blitzwing clenched his teeth as both his shoulder cannons released twin icy jets at the medic-bot.

"Think that I'll let you catch me with that trick twice?" Ratchet laughed confidently, jumping out of the way of the ice trail that would have encompassed him.

"Not exactly," Blitzwing replied, dodging blows and shots fired from Sideswipe even as he kept his optics on Ratchet.

Too late Ratchet realized that the ice had spread beneath his feet when he had jumped up and landed hard on the ice, loosing his footing and falling onto his front. He growled in frustration, attempting to stand, but failed and slipped again onto his side.

"I _really_ hate this guy," Ratchet hissed through clenched teeth plates.

"Hey!" Sideswipe yelled, swinging a fist at Blitzwing. "Stop ignoring me, whack job!"

Blitzwing caught Sideswipe's fist without looking. When he _did_ look at Sideswipe, it was with the Hot Head personality in control.

"**Who are you calling whack job, pip squeak?"** Hot Head snarled, flinging Sideswipe away from him carelessly. Sideswipe flew through the air to crash in a skidding, pavement-breaking landing up the street. Human fighters scattered in the wake of his crash, but more than one thought that it was a bit of overly dramatic effect with the crushed pavement.

Blitzwing jerked and barked in pain when several heavy artillery shells attacked his back. He gritted his teeth and spun around and looked down, seeing a line of UN soldiers bravely firing all they had at the Decepticon Effort Neo-Nazi leader. Several more UN soldiers surrounded them, protecting them from the Neo-Nazis. These valiant efforts were returned when Hot Head Blitzwing released a stream of fire on them, scattering them everywhere. Neo Nazis and UN soldiers alike were scalded.

"**You think you can hurt me, puny weaklings!?"** Hot Head roared. **"You are nothing! You fight for the weak! You fight for—"**

Blitzwing shut up when Ratchet shot at him, making him duck laser shots. Blitzwing looked over at Ratchet, his red visor flashing angrily. He turned to the stranded medic and released a wild stream of fire on the ice, sending steam billowing to the sky in a steamy cloud.

"**You fight for a dying way of life, foolish Autobot!"** Blitzwing roared.

When the steam cleared, Ratchet was kneeling on one knee on the ground, grinning in triumph. Blitzwing's attack had melted his own ice, thus un-stranding Ratchet.

"Heh, thanks, ya flame-spitting fool," Ratchet chuckled, standing up.

Hot Head Blitzwing's jaw dropped, apparently appalled at his careless actions. Then he gritted his teeth before releasing a bestial roar, charging forward into full combat with the medic.

- - - -

Dodging and weaving around Thundercracker's shots and fists, Bumblebee's life was on the line and he knew it. No issue there: It had been on the line the instant he had donned on the Autobot insignia. Man, where had the times gone? Way back then, he was just a teen-bot, looking for some thrills and a legendary name, and boy, had he gotten them…

Thundercracker suddenly jumped up, aiming his heel-placed jets at Bumblebee while his back's main jets aimed behind him to balance the thrust directions and hold him stationary. The heel jets exploded with light, flame, and sound, rocking Bumblebee on his feet and knocking him back a few paces while Thundercracker's back jet gunned loudly to balance his heel jets' force and keep him in one place. Bumblebee tripped over some rubble and fell onto his back.

"Like that, Autobot?" Thundercracker cackled, landing, kneeling over Bumblebee. "It's a little something I learned from Starscream's girl."

Thundercracker seized the top of Bumblebee's chest armor to hold him in one place while he reached the other back in a fist, ready to beat Bumblebee into a lifeless pulp. Before he could land the first punch though, a blue metal boot whacked into his head, knocking him away from the yellow Autobot.

"Thanks, Prime," Bumblebee said, getting up.

"What do you mean?" Optimus asked, spinning around as he tried time and time again to strike at Skywarp, who was constantly teleporting around him. "I'm just trying to _hit_ this annoying air jumper!"

Optimus had accidentally hit Thundercracker in an attempt to strike Skywarp.

Skywarp appeared hovering in the air overhead and Optimus shot at him.

"Hold still, you annoying jet!" Optimus snapped.

Skywarp laughed before disappearing in a flash, teleporting to safety. Optimus' shot crashed into the houses behind where Skywarp had been, shattering glass and incinerating wood. Bumblebee spun around as Thundercracker stood up behind him, energon leaking from a cracked nasal gear and gritting his teeth in anger as he shot at Bumblebee. Bumblebee whacked the gun from Thundercracker's hand before resorting, once more, to hand-to-hand combat against the larger, darker Seeker.

"Hey Optimus," Bumblebee said, "Remember in the old days, all we had to do was take one of these crack-pots out and the other was sure to follow?"

Optimus perked his head in realization then exchanged a hidden smile with Bumblebee. Turning around, Optimus and Bumblebee both shot at Thundercracker. Thundercracker flew back with the force of the shots, grunting in pain. Just as he went back, Skywarp appeared behind him. True to their style, Thundercracker crashed into Skywarp and they both fell into the houses behind them, utterly destroying them, but successfully taking them out.

"Good thinking, Bumblebee," Optimus complimented. "But I don't think that that was all of them."

He looked up as more jets could be heard approaching, agreeing with his prediction. His optics dimmed in dismay when he saw the Decepticon insignia printed on the troop of jets dropping out of the sky towards them. Just because the majority of the Decepticons were trying to get to London doesn't mean that the Neo-Nazis were without back up.

Suddenly, even more jets appeared, this time approaching from the opposite direction. Optimus' optics glowed brightly in relief when he recognized the Autobot and UN nation flag stamps on the jets. The two opposing forces met in the air in a cinematic display of explosions and crashing metal, mating with the audio receptor-popping booms of explosions and metal screeching as jets screamed their war cry and gears clanked together when Transformers changed into robot mode for better control. One couldn't have scripted it any better.

Autobot met Decepticon in the air, changing between chasing each other and meeting in floating hand-to-hand combat. What human-piloted jets that did not attack the Decepticons flew dangerously low over the town, ripping shingles from house roofs and shattering glass as they released bombs and bullets upon the ground-bound Neo-Nazi forces. The effect was instant and much approved of: The Neo-Nazis retreated, knowing when a fight was not worth total defeat.

- - - -

Hot Head Blitzwing got up from where Ratchet had flung him on the ground. Looking up, he saw the UN and Autobot forces crossing the skies. He snarled in frustration, but his face turned to that of Cold Blitzwing.

"Starscream," the calm German aspect of Blitzwing called, "We must go: Our job is done here."

"Well, let's _go_, then!" Starscream exclaimed, transforming into jet form and rocketing out of the ruined building he and Sunstreaker had been fighting in. "Quickly, before that crazy one-eyed Autobot rips my wing off with his _teeth_!"

Sunstreaker roared in challenge as Starscream escaped: Ever since he had lost his optic in Transport City's final hours, he had never been exactly the straight minded kind. The fact that Ratchet had been unable to repair his optic was not helping his condition. Sideswipe had to pull himself from his crater on the road and run over to Sunstreaker to keep him from running after the Decepticon.

Blitzwing, meanwhile, smirked to Ratchet and saluted smartly before transforming into jet mode and flying after Starscream. Ratchet clenched his teeth plates, but watched the two powerful Decepticons as they were chased off by UN jets.

- - - -

"Oww," Sideswipe whimpered, rubbing his dented head. "Oww, oww, oww…"

"We get the idea, Sideswipe," Ratchet growled, adjusting something in Optimus' arm. "It hurts. Now will you shut up for five minutes? I'm trying to work here."

"They caught us with our pants down," Sunstreaker growled, looking out over the smoking town.

"We don't wear pants," Sideswipe joked.

"Don't worry, Sunstreaker," Optimus assured the agitated Autobot warrior, "We did well."

"As compared to what?" Sunstreaker growled, turning to his leader. "A troop of green-horns fresh from the academy?"

The Autobots were in a large, ruined church on the higher edge of town, to its west. The roof was gone, and the rubble and weeds suggested that the church had been in ruins far longer than the war had been in existence. From here, it was a quick plunging drive down some relatively smooth down-hill roads to any place in the small town: An ideal spot for road-bound Autobots like themselves.

"Oh come on, Sunstreaker, not this again," Bumblebee pleaded.

"No, I'm serious," Sunstreaker snarled. "We wouldn't have our cans handed to us by the Decepticons if we were better fighters!"

"What do you define as a 'better fighter', Sunstreaker?" Optimus sighed.

"No prisoners, more fire power, more offensive takes," Sunstreaker counted off on his fingers, "And leave the humans in their forts and caves while we do the work!"

"This is why we're never getting past foot soldier rank, Sunny," Sideswipe sighed. "You're going to get half the army killed with talk like that."

"I still don't see why we even bothered protecting this planet," Sunstreaker pouted. "It's not like they've ever done anything good for us. Even when we trusted them with the inanimate shells of our greatest enemies, they _still_ succeeded in screwing up and wound up resurrecting the entire Decepticon army! I mean, come on, they were _dead_, like, _dead, _dead… and they _still_ slagged it up!"

Of course, he used the English version of "slagged".

"I say we should just forget the humans and—"

"Don't finish that sentence."

Everyone looked to Ratchet upon his speaking of the last sentence. Ratchet slammed the arm plate back down on Optimus' arm, closing up the hole, and looked over at Sunstreaker with flaring blue optics. Optimus flinched a little at the impact of his arm being slammed shut and rubbed it, but even he dared not interrupt the medic.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Ratchet hissed. "I don't need a book-learned mech like Prowl or a finger pointer like Cliffjumper to know what you're thinking, Sunny, and I don't want you to finish that sentence. Don't you dare say it."

"What?" Sunstreaker asked. "Kick aft until every Spark in us is snuffed out?"

An awkward pause followed but was, of course, ruined by Sideswipe.

"Oh!" Sideswipe exclaimed, clapping his hands to gather and pointing at Ratchet, "You thought he was going to say 'forget the humans _and join the Decepticons_'! Ha, ha, silly Ratchet! Decepticons are for the scrap yard, not Autobots! Sunstreaker would _never_ become a Decepticon: He's too busy turning them into cybernetic Ramen noodles for that!"

Sunstreaker looked at his brother and smiled as he rubbed his metal hand on his twin's head, similar to ruffling hair. Optimus released a sigh of relief while Ratchet looked at the ground, then the sky, apparently thanking some higher power for Sideswipe's stupidity and its ability to shatter serious moods.

Optimus' communications link began beeping for attention. He stood and turned away, going to a separate corner as he answered the link.

_Didn't Bumblebee say that we were cautioned against using the comm. links in case Decepticons were listening in?_ Optimus wondered.

Aloud, he said into the comm. link, "This is Optimus Prime speaking."

"_Optimus Prime,"_ a familiar masculine Transformer replied over the comm. link, _"It's Counsel Mech Mirage: We need to talk."_


	7. Splinter Cell

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 7: Splinter Cell**

Remember when we said earlier that Benjamin's group contacted their men at base? They had two specific men running things in the way of communications and public relations care. Their names were Jack Turbine and Wheeljack.

"_Got off the phone with the fuzz,"_ Jack Turbine said, _"It's official: No more help from the fuzz on catching the Breaker Labs agents with us. They'll keep an eye out, but they're not going to so much as __look__ at a Breaker Labs' base without a bomb squad on hand."_

"It's the _police_, Jack," Becky growled, correcting her friend through the audio-visual communications link they had between Skyfire and the _Ark_. "Call it anything else and I will smack you _hard_ when we get back to the _Ark_."

Skyfire had dropped off the injured police men at a hospital and now he and the official Autobot members were floating around over the land while the Jacks back at the _Ark_ cleared up legal issues concerning the injured and dead police men. Benjamin, Prowl, Becky, MJ, Jazz, and Josh were in Skyfire's main cockpit.

"Were they upset?" Josh asked.

"Of course they were upset," Becky exclaimed, waving her still-Transformer hands around in emphasis, "They lost a whole bunch of their guys because of us!"

"_At least we're not in trouble,"_ Jack tried suggesting.

"You're lying!" Becky exclaimed, pointing at the screen accusingly, "My head buzzed!"

"_Damn you and your in-born lie detector,"_ Jack growled. _"Prowl, I blame you."_

"How big of trouble are we in?" Benjamin asked asked.

"_Oh, a couple hundred thousand dollars in apology death money—"_

"Sorry we asked," Josh interrupted.

"Come on, Josh," Jazz said, nodding to the door. "Let's kick the metal boots off and grab some Z's while we can, eh?"

"Sounds good to me," Josh agreed, following him out of the cock pit.

"_Well, other than that,"_ Jack finished off, glancing down and pretending to shuffle papers off screen. _"All's well here: Patrols have had a few minor Decepticon-wannabe ambushes, but nothing fatal or even remotely serious. The most danger we've had is from the emails from the religious fanatics damning the Efforts' existence, telling us to go to hell, repent, repent, repent,' don't take my woman', yadda, yadda, yadda. Oh, and communication to the European forces has been stunted on suspicion of being overheard by the Decepticons."_

"Thanks, Jack," Benjamin said as Prowl and Becky left the cock pit. "Keep up the good work with running things, but make sure that the patrollers don't let their guard down. I don't care if the ambushes are from untrained wannabes: Anyone claiming to be a Decepticon is a potential threat."

"_Roger that, Benjamin Prime!"_

Benjamin chuckled at Jack cut the communication link, leaving Skyfire's enormous windshield clean of the hologram screen and showing the starry night sky beyond.

"Prime?" Benjamin chuckled, "Like _that_ will ever happen."

"Well, you're rather far up the path to there already," MJ pointed out. "You've been doing a great job of keeping things around the _Ark_ in line with your dad in Europe. Heck, Prowl has hardly had to do anything!"

"You really think I can be called 'Prime' one day, MJ?" Benjamin asked.

"I _know_ so."

"'Benjamin Prime'," Benjamin muttered, trying the name on his tongue. "Not bad, but it still needs _something_."

"Well, you go get some sleep while you ponder your future," MJ chuckled, nudging Benjamin towards the door. "Father and I will keep a straight course for home."

Benjamin entered the main bay of Skyfire just as a bright light flashed. Prowl was kneeling on the floor and caught Becky as she resumed her human form. But rather than being dressed in the black police uniform she had been wearing before, she was in a different outfit. It was a white police outfit neatly tailored to her body, but the cap was black with a red, V-shaped badge instead of a police badge on the front of it. On her chest pocket where a police badge was typically pinned was an Autobot badge, and she had a black pair of boots, belt (with a holstered gun, Ben noted warily), and white gloves with black wrists.

Becky blinked slowly as she pushed her hat up then looked herself over.

"What the…?" she muttered.

"Yeah, that," Josh said, "It seems like that no matter what you wear, it'll always turn into a default outfit that's a lot like your robot mode. My advice: Just wear it and save yourself money buying new clothes. I had to transform six times before I got the idea."

To demonstrate, Josh reverted to his human form, striking a dramatic pose with his fists clenched and tensing himself up as if he were preparing for hand-to-hand combat. The light around him flashed briefly and an instant later, it was not a Transformer standing where he had been, but a human.

In his human form, Josh was an average seventeen year old human; somewhat thin, pale, with black hair with grey eyes. Currently he was dressed in an all-white out fit with black boots and gloves reaching his knees and elbows, a black X crossing his shoulders and back, and a black hat on top that had a silver visor for a hat bill. It made him look older: almost as old as Benjamin, who already appeared to be a twenty-year old, in spite of being only seventeen. The children were not only maturing mentally from war, but physically with time.

"What do ya think?" Josh said, grinning as he spun around. "Snappy, eh?"

"I thought you just bought those from a _costume shop_, knowing your ego," Becky stated coolly.

"Why would I waste money on fashion when I could save it for our life together in the near future, my beauty?" Josh cooed, placing one hand on his chest and raising the other dramatically.

"Hey, look: a gun," Becky said, drawing out her gun.

"Crap."

Josh took off running for one of Skyfire's smaller, private and hopefully safer compartments with Becky running on his heels. Used to these antics, Prowl and Jazz let them go, instead choosing to sit down on one of the Transformer-sized benches lining the main bay's walls. Ironhide was parked in van form to the side, having Jess sleeping off the night in him. Anne had neglected to revert to her human form and laid on the bench across from Prowl and Jazz, curled up onto her self and in deep sleep.

Under the benches was a shorter bench for humans. Max sat on one such bench with his arms crossed across his chest and glaring across the wide bay floor. He was glaring at Sam. Benjamin walked over to him, deciding that it would be safer to keep an eye on the hot head.

"Why did we bring _him_?" Max growled when Benjamin sat by him.

"Sam has an extensive knowledge about the land where the Breaker Lab caravan they talked about could be hiding," Benjamin explained. "By having a local with us, we are dramatically increasing out chances of successfully locating and capturing the caravan. We need to do this before they can escape. That and we could use all the help we can get; our forces are stretched enough as it is guarding energy factories and helping in Europe that we just can't say no to aide."

"I don't trust him."

"Why?"

Max dared not tell Benjamin about Sam's hate speech. He didn't want to sound whiny and plus, it's just a humane pride thing not to indulge one's greatest troubles unless pried for them. So he stated his fears in a vague, but still accurate, sense.

"He can't be much older than us, and he's human, so why is he living with a Transformer? Shouldn't he be in school this time of year? And isn't there just something… _off_ about him?"

"Max," Benjamin sighed. "He's human. If he were a Decepticon Effort, then we'd be hearing a sort of TV hum, like when we met the Decepticon Efforts."

"He doesn't have to be a Decepticon or an Effort to be a threat," Max pointed out.

"You're just tired, Max," Benjamin yawned, getting up and walking away. "Get some sleep."

"Ben—"Max began, but he saw that Benjamin was not in the mood to listen to any more.

He hissed a cuss word and batted a fist on his leg. Couldn't Benjamin at least _pretend _to listen to him? No one ever listened to him! Max would be the first to admit that he had done stupid things in the past, but he had sobered up when the war started, he swore! Why couldn't anyone give him a chance to prove that?

_If they won't listen to me,_ Max determined, clasping his eyes on Sam. _Then I'll keep an eye on him myself. If he slips up, I'll be there to catch him red-handed. That'll show Ben. It'll show Ben that I __can__ do things right! It'll show them all!_

Sam saw Max staring and grinned evilly, winking cleverly. At that moment it was determined between them that there was a game going on between them: a game of wits, loyalty, and reputation.

Max was _not_ going to loose.

- - - -

**Somewhere in Japan**

**Midnight**

The human guard slammed against a wall and was knocked unconscious. Skynet stepped over his prone form, not really caring whether or not he had broke the unfortunate night guard's neck. Those guards were just encouragement of rather than actual security: the laser-covered shock doors were _supposed_ to keep all burglars out of the top-secret computer facility, disguised as a fossil fuels factory from the outside.

Then again, the creators of the security system had probably not counted on any burglar being a technopath.

A door locked via an eye and palm-print scanner blocked Skynet from his goal. With a mere twitch of his mental powers, the door opened. With in was a massive machine: A super computer, one of four in the secret factory. Walking up to the computer, he placed a gloved palm on the computer and injected his mentality into it, seeking vital information. Thousands of conspiracy truths, hidden names of political scandals, blue prints to super weapons, bio-warfare recopies, and top-secret military plans and schemes flashed through the data field Skynet walked in.

All useless.

Skynet drew out of the computer and scanned through the computer laboratory telepathically, locating sentient minds and scanning through them. Everyone here, it appeared, was either dead, unconscious, or hiding, too terrified to come out and face the small Decepticon splinter force that had snuck into their factory and locked it down from the inside, locking everyone inside. Everyone here, Skynet diagnosed, was too old, cold, and senseless to be of use to him. They would have to be taken care of if they were not to blow their cover…

"_Soundwave to Cassetticons,"_ Soundwave called on the comm. link, speaking through the silver translator node in Skynet's ear. _"Report."_

"_Nothing in Computer 1, boss,"_ Frenzy reported. He and Rumble had had to, literally, bash through the lock doors to get to their targeted hack computer.

"_The same for Computer 2, sire,"_ Ravage stated. He, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw had had to merely sneak into their target's room via their cassette forms hidden on a cart. In spite the ease of entering the laboratory, it was the most blood splattered.

"Useful information: Non-existent," Skynet stated. "Potential Cassetticons: Not present."

"_Orders: Terminate any survivors,"_ Soundwave ordered.

"_Ooh, I call dibs on everyone!"_ Rumble exclaimed.

"_Oh __come on__!"_ Frenzy whined.

"_Not if the birds and I get there faster than you, twerp,"_ Ravage chuckled darkly.

"Dibs: Acknowledged," Skynet sighed. "Actions: Nonexistent."

- - - -

This had been Soundwave's last lead, but still he had failed to determine the location of the three Efforts the first generation of Breaker Labs had released into the world. There was no other option but to report and admit to Megatron that he had failed. It would be embarrassing, considering how Soundwave was a communications and _information_ officer of all things—

Just as Soundwave was about to leave the office of the director of the hidden computer laboratory and location of the remaining super computer, he froze. Following the trail of blood that had come from the director's crumbled body on the floor, Soundwave's hidden optics saw that the blood appeared to be pointing to the desk. Soundwave had looked through it, but had found nothing other than office supplies and a gun with bullets. But it was worth looking again…

Soundwave's foot flew through the air and shattered the desk into hundreds of tiny pieces and splinters upon impact. Metal crashed into wood, making the silent, dark office unnaturally loud for a split moment. When the splinters fell to the floor, very little of the desk was left. Soundwave's visor glowed in approval when he saw a hidden cavity over the desk's main drawer. Reaching in, he pulled out a thick sheaf of papers. Looking down, he scanned the papers into his memory banks.

A feeling that was Soundwave's own personal version of approval rose up with in the Decepticon. It was rather clever of the humans, actually, to hide evidence of the hidden Efforts on something as primitive as paper, something Transformers considered too far below them to use. The actual phrase was "hidden right under my nose".

"Cassetticons and Skynet to me," Soundwave ordered on the comm. link. "Evidence of hidden Efforts discovered."

- - - -

Dudbud was off scavenging in the scarp yard and there was no school that day, so Alias was left

Alone to pace around and around her home restlessly. Something was wrong, she knew it, but what was it? Looking around, she peeked out side the windows of her bed room before lowering the shutters over them, giving her adequate privacy. She settled down in her recharging booth, keeping the lid up and rested her head back as she shut her optics down. She took long, deep breaths, cooling her agitated processor. Finally, a cool, feminine voice spoke in the darkness of her head.

**Adequate level of processor activity reached. **

**Universal Computer Program activated. **

**Items of search: Decepticon, war, Earth. Excluding search results older than three years ago. Search Results: 632 news articles, 78 video files, 1.56 hundred thousand Autobot reports and files. 2.45 hundred thousand Decepticon reports and files-- blip! **

**Files with Transformer Alias mentioned: one. **

**File type: Decepticon audio report. Would you like to play this file?**

** Order confirmed; stand by for audio footage.**

** Blip!**

_ "Soundwave to Megatron."_

_ "What is it, Soundwave?"_

_ "Mission: Success."_

_ "You have found a hidden Effort?"_

_ "Affirmative. Three of three hidden Efforts found. Location of first Effort: Cybertron."_

Alias ripped herself away from her trance with a gas[, rolling over in her recharging booth as she whimpered in fear. They had found her. What was she going to do?

- - - -

_**Juggernaut ready. Juggernaut ready. Chains hold Juggernaut now, but Juggernaut ready. Masters put Juggernaut in small dark box on big metal air monster, but Juggernaut ready. Juggernaut know where Masters take Juggernaut: Masters take Juggernaut to red faced pain makers. Juggernaut will get pain makers. Juggernaut make pain makers feel pain that Juggernaut feel. Juggernaut rip red face pain makers limb from limb! Juggernaut make pain makers no hurt Juggernaut any more! But Juggernaut wait. Juggernaut know that if Juggernaut fight now, Masters think Juggernaut too sick in head to fight red face pain makers. So Juggernaut wait. Juggernaut ready. Juggernaut ready.**_

- - - -

"Dr. Moriguchi!" one of the guards called, running up to Moriguchi.

Moriguchi turned away from watching the workers load up the cargo plane and looked at the guard.

"What is it now?" he asked impatiently. "We're about to ship out to pick up Base 63's forces!"

"Sir, report from the Hamada Company in Japan: Hamada, Ito and Haru were all killed when a splinter force came into the hidden labs there and killed everyone inside! We have reason that it's the same people who killed Dr. Sa."

Moriguchi stared at the guard, trying to figure out what to say. Finally, he waved a hand dismissively and ordered, "Tell the others of this."

The guard saluted and trotted off. Moriguchi pulled a list of names from an interior pocket of his jacket and a red pen to go with it. He crossed off the three dead men's names before putting the pen and paper back.

"Four down, nine to go," he muttered. "Who ever is doing this is doing my job for me…"


	8. Jail Break

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 8: Prison Break**

The Asteroid Belt Prison was a well-known name to all people, as it should be: It was where the Decepticon survivors of the Final Battle of the original Autobot-Decepticon War were kept, not only in payment for their crimes, but for their own protection, as quite a few Transformers and humans alike still wanted them dead. They were forced to live among common scum that had just happened to be transferred there and the worst of crooks alike.

There were only a few Decepticons compared to the original size of the army: five hundred out of the thousands and thousands of original Decepticons. Only fifty had been above the rank of medic or engineer, and less than fifteen were actual well-known names that had had the full-rank of warrior and a common name thrown in with topics like the Seekers and even Megatron himself. It was a sad sign of time and how it can change things, but what could one do? What had been done was done.

The ABP had other criminals than Decepticons, of course: Autobot traitors, unwanted arms dealers, double-crossing spies (whose lives were pure hell amidst the very people they had betrayed), and the common criminals. It was somewhat an insult to see someone as legendary as a Insecticon in a cell beside some pick pocket left in the prison while being transferred from one jail to the next, but the prisoners had no say in the matter.

All of these mechs were watched over by Autobot guards, mostly neophytes fresh out of the Cybertronian War Academy. The prison was so stranded on its rock in the Asteroid Belt and had such beyond-the-times security systems that the superiors were confident that they could slack off with the experience of the guards.

The prison was often the final test for many an in-training warrior. In spite of all the security measures, there was always _one_ prisoner who managed to cause a mob fight or _one_ idiot of a guard who trusted the wrong Decepticon too much. Hence, if a rookie could survive three to ten years guarding the prison with little to no black marks on their record, they could graduate into becoming a full-grown soldier. Whether or not the rookies stayed on, then, was up to them. Most graduated rookies who moved onto "bigger and better" things would soon realize that the prison had the most excitement in the universe. At least, such was the case before the war started.

The number of guards had been increased in recent weeks all around the Asteroid Belt Prison due to the news of a revived Decepticon war on Earth. What few veterans had stayed to protect the prison rather than go to Earth looked at the Decepticons and did their best to keep the news of the war a secret from the prisoners. News of the Decepticons' revived leader would only lead to bolder prisoners, which would lead to more attempted prison breaks.

But in spite of their efforts, the prisoners received news and some guards went behind their superiors' backs to take the matter into their own hands and go to extremes to snuff out the rebellious spirit. All that one was saying was that it was not uncommon to find a Decepticon figure "mysteriously" dead in the exercise yard or poisoned by bad energon.

Now, as always, the asteroid, and the prison it held, was in its permanent state of night. The prison, huge, square, grey, and surrounded by a high fence filled with super-high voltage, was a typical prison. Unseen in the shadows of a near by clump of house-sized asteroid rocks, a "liberated" space cruiser slid to a halt with in a relatively safe area. The craft set out an invisible force field to repel rude rocks even as its belly opened up, releasing a lavender circle craft with wide, scarab-like lemon-yellow wings on either side. The friendly-looking hovercraft beeped and flashed twice before flying down to the prison.

The rookies of the guard towers were too busy talking about femmes and dreams of glory to notice the hovercraft cross over the fence. A small zap of electricity came from the fence to the craft, undoing and turning off its ability to transform. Instantly the craft transformed into a certain mech with moth-like wings and antennae. The mech landed as gently as he could on the ground and looked around making sure no one had seen his unauthorized entrance. His eyes were as blue as sapphires.

Confident that no one had seen him enter, the mech stood straight, squared his shoulders, and tapped the tip of his antennae together for luck. Striding forward confidently, he walked up to the main door of the prison. Being a prison, it lacked grandeur and was a mere door in the wall. He nodded and raised a hand in greeting to the two Autobots guarding the door, making sure they saw the Autobot stamp on his chest. The Autobots nodded simply and allowed him to pass.

_Too easy,_ he thought.

Inside the prison, the halls were tall and white, slanting outward as they went up, with turquoise-tinted lights keeping the place lit inside. Lining almost all the halls was row upon row upon row of cells, each holding exactly one bunk with exactly one Decepticon that was kept inside by a thick shield glass capable of shaking off even the strongest laser fire. To further discourage break outs and negative behavior, each Decepticon had electric handcuffs ready to zap them should they make any sudden movements and a metal collar around their necks with purple lights, ready to suck energon from them the touch of a button on a remote each veteran guard carried.

The Decepticons and their fellow prisoners sat, paced, or slept in their cells, left alone with their thoughts and memories. Some glared at the guards that paced the halls, or at the other prisoners near them. Some appeared to be doing mental excises, counting on their fingers, twiddling their thumbs, or even standing on their hands or heads. A couple even rocked in the corner of their cell, clearly having lost their sanity in the wake of solitary confinement. All stared and glared at Flickword as he passed by them.

_Keep glaring_, the mech thought confidently. _Soon you'll be thanking me._

He came upon a cell with three guards surrounding it, taunting someone with in. He stopped and peeked over their shoulders curiously. They were daunting a black and yellow mech that was flipping and dancing about in his cell. The cause of such a weird display was from one of the guards who frequently pressed a button on a remote he had, making the wrist cuffs on the prisoner electrocute them.

"Come on, Shrapnel, you said that the guy who controls electricity controls the world!" the guard with the remote crowed. "Well, I'm controlling your world, baby! How do you like it, eh? How do you like it you little piece of scrap!?"

Shrapnel sank to his knees and clutched his head, emitting a long, high-pitched scream that barely made it through the glass. The guards laughed at thee Decepticons' plight and it took all of Flickword's discipline not to smash their processors into the glass.

_Despicable,_ he thought, stalking on ahead as his engine buzzed in anger. _And I actually thought that they were the __good guys__ at one time!_

Spotting a small hall suddenly causing a break in the rows of cells to his right, Flickword turned down the hall. Right there in the indent was a pair of heavy-duty protected blast doors, both supporting large signs declaring that only authorized mechs were allowed in the room beyond.

"Can I help you, rookie?"

Turning around, the mech saw that an Autobot had snuck up on him. While this mech was large and red, he was not of any Autobot of importance that the moth-like spy knew of. The Autobot glared down in disdain on the moth-like mech, although there was only approximately three inches of difference between them. That was saying something, considering Flickword's large size.

"Well?" the Autobot sneered, towering over the moth-mech. "What's your name and what are _you_ doing here?"

"Mothman, sir," the mech replied, wanting to vomit on the name, "My name is Mothman. I'm a new intelligence officer transfer. I need to get in there to do my job," He added, gesturing to the restricted doors.

The red Autobot thrust his face towards the other's mechs, his optics narrowing in distrust while a sneer contorted his face.

"As the warden of this prison," he growled, "I didn't receive a report about an intelligence officer."

"Oh, really?" the moth-mech asked while one of his antennae drooped in comic dismay, "That's a problem for you, because now I have to kill you."

Before the warden could react, the moth-mech seized the warden's head in both hands and promptly broke his neck. Across the hall, the prisoners who could see the encounter sat up in surprise, getting up and, probably for the first time since they got to the prison, walked up to the glass and placed their hands on the glass. He could see curiosity in their optics, and suspicion, but, underneath, was hope. The loud laughter of the mechs teasing Shrapnel up the hall failed to hear the crack of their warden's death.

The moth-mech noticed his audience and grinned, winking even as the temporary color-changing optic lenses dissolved, allowing the true ruby color beneath come into being, spreading from the center of the optic to fill the optics. The prisoners' mouths turned into an excited "O" of realization and even began to hop in excitement. They quickly backed off, decreasing the chance of a real guard seeing them and coming to investigate the strange enthusiasm.

Turning away from his audience, the mech-moth snatched the security card from the dead warden's belt and used it to get into the intelligence room. He quickly shut the doors behind him. Even as the four Autobots working the computers with in turned around to look at him, he drew two guns hidden at his hips and shot two dead in the heads. The remaining mechs jumped and cried out in shock, but the intruder shot the third and kept the Autobot at the main computer alive.

The shot mechs were still twitching and turning grey as Flickword crossed the small room whose walls were lined with computers that lit the room in a bloody red color. As he walked, a color change came over him, turning his lavender colors into black and the lemon yellow into dark orchid with bloody red accents. He glanced down at the third victim and noted that they were still moving. He extended his arm and shot them, making the survivor jump and yip in terror.

He shoved his gun to the forehead of the surviving, terrified, young intelligence officer.

"W-W-w-w-w-w-w-w-who--?" the terrified rookie stuttered.

"Shut up, you sound like the old me: Flickword," the intruder interrupted. "Now, Enter the codes to release the prisoners and I will let you live."

"W-w-w-w-which p-p-p-prisoners?" the poor rookie whimpered.

"All of them."

The instant 1,500 cells at the prison opened simultaneously via electronic orders, 957 criminals and jailed Decepticons stood in shock, completely unable to believe that it had just happened. Their guards: 300 Autobots with in the halls with another 100 around the prison, stood in shock, unable to comprehend that the doors had just _opened_, in the true fashion of a stranger-than-fiction universe of randomness. Then, as one, all the collars and bracelets clasped on the prisoners flashed and beeped, then undid themselves with business-like clicks. The instant they clanged to the floor, the action started.

"Started" would be an understatement. "_Exploded"_ would be more accurate. All those years of being locked in the same cell day after day were undone as every prisoner in the prison leaped forward and attacked their guards, the only things keeping them from their freedom.

Of the trio of guards that had been teasing Shrapnel, one attempted to fight, only to be attacked by the surrounding prisoners. One flat-out transformed into a small space craft and tried to fly away, only to be plucked from the air and promptly broken in half. The remote-controller dropped his remote and stumbled back, falling into the now-open cell behind him as shock and disbelief made his body ignore his panicked feelings to run. Across the hall, a glass wall slid aside and a red visor twinkled in the shadows of the cell. He groaned and crawled back, deeper into the abandoned cell. He became trapped against the wall and it was there that Shrapnel caught up to him. Shrapnel smirked as he crouched over the cruel guard, lifting the guard's chin up with a hand. His insect claws slowly unsheathed from his finger tips.

"Yes, I said that he who controls electricity controls the world, world," Shrapnel said. "But now I think that it's time that the control is given back to me, me."

Flickword could hear the guard's scream from clear over inside the control room.

"Good work," Flickword told his prisoner. Then he slammed the prisoner's face into the keyboard of the computer, knocking him out, but not killing him: Keeping true to his promise.

Someone started the alarm and the fence guards leaped to their feet, preparing to race to their comrades' aide with in the prison. Before they could, though, a trio of jets, a typical army jet, a tetra jet, and a strange sort of space jet with hawk-like wings, dove from the space twilight and rained professional fire power over the guards, cutting down the weaker, confused amateur soldiers. The jets dropped bombs, blowing up guard towers, shattering windows, and shredding the tall electric fence. The fence violently spewed bright yellow sparks everywhere before flickering and dying, loosing its glow as well as its charge. The guards attempted to fight, but were helpless against their unexpected enemies. True, there were only three, but it was quality, not quantity that counted, and these three had more quality than _any_ of their enemies had.

It wasn't so much as an attack as it was extermination.

"Squad Leader Mextron, this is Seeker Solarflare," Solarflare called, "Permission to join the fight indoors, sir?"

"Negative, Solarflare," Mextron responded. "There are _a lot_ of unhappy prisoners in there letting out _all_ their frustration on their ex-captors. They won't tell friend from foe in there. Proceed with eliminating exterior opponents."

"Woha, woha, woha! Hey, hey, hey!" Smartmouth yelled, quickly barrel-rolling in between the older Seeker femme and the son of Megatron. "What's with all the stiff talk now? And who the hell made _Mextron_ leader?"

"Lord Megatron," Mextron said, unable to hide his snide pride.

"Ooh, look at me!" Smartmouth said in an obnoxiously mocking tone, "I'm Megatron Junior; I can do what ever I want! Nah, nah, nah!"

"I do _not_ sound like that!" Mextron snapped, his hidden temper peeking out from with in.

"Yes you do," Smartmouth snickered, dropping a plasma bomb on a tower as she circled the prison.

"Do not!" Mextron snapped, chasing down a fleeing flying Autobot and shooting him down.

"Do to!"

"Do not!"

"Do to!"

"I do _not,_ you miserable rusting excuse of a tin glider!"

"Look who's talking, turkey face!"

"Will both of you _shut up_?" Solarflare snapped. "Mextron, the criminals have taken the prison! Quick, now is your chance before anyone takes leadership!"

Sure enough, the freed prisoners had come outside to celebrate, dragging unlucky surviving guards out after them via cable ropes and reveling in their new found freedom. Some transformed and flew for the stars. All turned, how ever, when the trio of jets flew down low over them and landed on a guard tower that had fallen onto its side. Even the ones who had started flying off came back to circle over head and watch out of curiosity.

Mextron took the middle position with Solarflare on his left and Smartmouth on his right. Flickword flew over the heads of the prisoners and landed behind the trio of jet flyers, crossing his arms and spreading his wings impressively. With his large frame and the flames of an exploded Autobot guard behind him, he appeared less like a moth man and more like a sort of part-scarab guardian of some arcane netherworld, with his antennae resembling multi-tipped horns.

The prisoners stared at the group, recognizing a group that had something to say. Optics wandered to the Decepticon symbols stamped on the persons of Mextron's party and either dimmed in fear that they might be shanghaied into an army for their freedom, or brightened realizing that they were about to return to their true place with in the Decepticon army.

"Ladies and gentle-mechs," Mextron began. His voice took on a commanding quality, becoming loud, deep, clear, and audible by all. "You have all lived for Primus-knows how many years on this Primus-forsaken rock, and you have spent countless hours dreaming of freedom. I am sure none of you dreamt that it could ever come so easily: Just a mere minute is all it took, and your doors were opened, your restraints dropped, and your enemies presented. I am also sure that you are curious as to who my team and I are and who we work for that would want to release such a crowd. We are here on a recruiting mission…"

He spread his wings, showing the Decepticon symbols stamped on each of the compressed-feather wings,

"For the Decepticon army, led by Lord Megatron himself."

"Megatron survived, survived?" Shrapnel ventured, joining his amazed muttering with others, "Amazing, amazing!"

"I thought the humans killed him!" a mech called out, a mere small-timer murderer of some sort.

Mextron fixed his red optics on the mech. A peculiar fire filled his optics.

"Humans, killing Megatron?" he asked. "What sort of _fairy tale_ is that? What sort of _rumor_ is that? _The_ Lord Megatron, ruler of the Decepticon army and bane of the universe, killed by a mere handful of _maggots_? What an inane idea!" Mextron roared.

The mech who had spoken shrank back fearfully. Some people even snickered at his foolishness, but it was nervously; this Mextron mech's power was a powerful, sobering force.

"Megatron is indestructible!" Mextron yelled, pacing in front of the crowd while keeping his optics on it. "Megatron is strong, powerful, and _invincible_. It will take far, far, _far_ more than _anything_ the Autobots will ever have to kill him!

"He is the destined ruler of the universe, which is why," he went on, raising his voice even more. "That he needs an army! Not mere strays that he has been kind enough to take under his wing, but true warriors; mechs who have seen war and have had their hands covered in energon and blood and are _not_ hesitant to have their hands thus dirtied again! Even you; the guards that have been spared by some higher power to last this long…"

He leaped down from his perch and pulled a bound-up, beaten guard to his feet with one hand while the other drew his sword. A quick swipe later and the guard became free.

"Even you, former guard keepers," Mextron spat, "It is not too late to save your self and join us in the glorious grip of Megatron. You have only to remove your Autobot insignias, burn the contract you have made with them, and swear your loyalty and service to Megatron. Join us and you will live not only to see another day, but to enter a time of glory and power! All of you can join this force!"

He hopped back up onto the tower to continue his speech.

"He desires cold-hearted killers, blood-thirsty murderers, and clever spies and quick demolition men alike. Do you not seek revenge on the Autobots for your imprisonment? Do you not seek to crush your enemies' craniums beneath your boots? Do you not seek to cheer in pride as your colors wave triumphant over the conquered field? Then raise your voices up to he whom you will declare your loyalty to! Then raise your voices in cheering for the future name of _Lord Megatron!"_ Mextron finished, punching the air to bear his sword to the crowd and flinging his wings open in show.

_ "Hail, Megatron!"_ the crowd cheered, punching the air as Mextron had done._ "Hail, Megatron! Hail, Megatron!"_

- - - -

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away on Earth, Megatron, Shockwave, Ferrofluid, Shadowleap, and Cartwheel watched the attack through a shared visual link with Solarflare in Shockwave's computer lab. Cartwheel and Shadowleap were sitting on Ferrofluid's lap in his chair with their eyes wide and their jaws dropped open. Ferrofluid's eyes, too, were wide and his mouth was slightly open. Shockwave's non-existent expression was unreadable, but judging by the way his optic was glowing brightly with a flicker and the tips of his ear fins were frequently twitching, he was amazed and surprised. Megatron was grinning cleverly, his optics narrowed in approval.

"And _that,_" Megatron said, "Is why I sent him."

Suddenly, a message blipped on screen and Ferrofluid quickly tapped at the keyboard, drawing up an alert window on screen.

"M' lord," he announced, "There is a report from General Blitzwing."

"Put him on screen," Megatron ordered. He sounded reluctant to break away from the historic speech.

A few key taps later and the blue face of Blitzwing appeared on screen beside the visual footage being sent from Flickword. Cold Blitzwing switched to Random Blitzwing, who looked to his right, directly at Flickword's visual footage window, as if he could actually see it.

_"Ooh, you're watching __Prison Break__?"_ he asked. _"I __love__ that show!"_

No one dared ask how the Pit he saw the window.

"What is it, Blitzwing?" Megatron asked.

Random changed to Cold Blitzwing.

_"Sir,"_ Blitzwing reported. _"Circumstances have caused our plans to move quicker due to an easier pace."_

"Oh? And what is the cause of this good fortune?" Megatron inquired.

_"Sir, Optimus Prime has been arrested."_


	9. Arrested

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 9: Arrested**

"We're _what_!?" Ironhide yelled.

"The Council of Cybertron has ordered that Autobots Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Jazz, Prowl, and Ironhide be taken into protective custody for crimes against both the United Nations of Earth and the Council of Cybertron," the Autobot official stated coolly.

"What did we do wrong?" Jazz asked. "We've been putting our _aft_ on the line ever since we woke up on this planet!"

"By allowing the Decepticons to enter the inadequate care of Breaker Laboratories, and participating in strange and unusual experimentation in the way of Project Smelting," the turquoise and white official went on. "The aforementioned Autobots are charged with abuse of power, recklessness with important priorities, and endangering of lives, both human _and_ Transformer."

"Sir," Prowl said politely to the guest of the _Ark_. "When we initially were introduced to Project Smelting by Breaker Labs, the Council gave us permission to and even _encouraged_ us to participate, seeing it as an opportunity to create better bonds between the Transformer and human race."

"None the less," the official went on. "It is well advised to turn in your weapons and come with me peacefully. The sooner the Council sees that they are wrong about the crimes the sooner you may be released and returned to your duties."

The Autobot fathers exchanged looks before Prowl sighed and drew out his laser gun. He turned it over and handed it, handle-first, to the official. The official blankly took the weapon and handed it to the larger red-orange and yellow Autobot beside him, who placed the weapons with in a compartment in his chest. Jazz grimaced, but also turned over his gun. Ironhide handed over his gun, as well. Everyone stared at him. Rolling his optics, Ironhide began to open up numerous compartments on his person and continued pulling out and handing over weapons.

Jazz looked over to the door way of the _Ark_ lobby that led deeper into the ship and there saw Benjamin, Max, Jess, Josh, and Becky. Behind them, Wheeljack, with Jack Turbine on one shoulder and guest Sam on the other peeked over their heads. Josh looked up at Jazz from beneath his white hat's silver bill with wide, worried eyes. Jazz waved his hand in a comforting motion before turning back to the official.

"Hey, uh, official man, sir," Jazz ventured. "What about the kids?"

"They will not be punished for their existence," the official replied as he passed some grenades from Ironhide to his weapons carrier. "They will be allowed to stay here on Earth and continue assisting in the war against the Decepticons and Neo-Nazis."

"If I may ask, who filed the complaint about the charges?" Prowl asked.

"Certain anonymous parties have filed official complaints against Autobot activity on Earth," the official said carefully. "All that I have been authorized to share is that these same anonymous parties have certain political strength here on Earth."

He moved some tiny bombs from Ironhide to his brawny partner. "And are you done yet?" he asked impatiently of Ironhide.

"That's the last of 'em," Ironhide said, grinning mischievously as he raised his hands up in show.

Prowl rolled his optics and slammed an elbow in between Ironhide's shoulder blades. Twin tiny compartments opened up in Ironhide's wrists and dropped out a set of tiny throw-able razors. Prowl politely picked the razors up and handed them to the weapon-carrying mech while he ignored Ironhide's glare.

"I didn't even know you could _use_ those," Jazz muttered.

"Good, let us go," the official said, turning around and striding out the _Ark_ door.

The four Autobot guards who had been standing near the door now moved to circle their new prisoners, escorting them out of the _Ark_ and to the spacecraft outside.

"Don't worry, kids," Jazz called back to the Efforts. "We'll be back in a jiffy!"

"You better," Anne whispered.

Outside, the Autobots walked up the ramp and into the belly of a pale green and white space jet. The door lifted itself up and lights all about the craft flashed as the engines with in hummed as they charged up. The craft gently floated off the ground and turned around, as smooth and graceful as a duck on water. Once it had pointed itself to the sky, the land around the craft flashed and the craft took off, becoming a mere white streak in the darkness of the night before disappearing into the starry sky. The Efforts waited a long moment as it slowly sank into them that their fathers had been arrested for their existence.

"Well," Becky finally said, "This bites."

"Do you need a strong man to lean on, Becky?" Josh cooed, approaching the dark-haired beauty.

"Back off, wimp," Becky growled, drawing her gun and pointing it at Josh.

Josh backed off.

"Great!" Anne snarled, stomping a robot-feline foot in frustration. "_Now_ how are we supposed to take out Breaker Labs when our best guys are gone?"

"Hey, look at it this way," Jack Turbine said, flexing his arms. "You got us!"

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" Anne asked.

"An anonymous tip?" Max muttered, looking up at Sam.

"Don't fret, Miss Anne," Sam said, sliding down Wheeljack's arm and leg to the floor, "With the right measure of brains and brawn, we could take out the Decepticons ourselves!"

"He's right," Benjamin agreed. "All we have to do is apply our forces in the correct manner and we can complete our tasks. I'll be the first to admit that I'm afraid for my father's life, but that can't keep us from our duties. Now, my father, Optimus, was leader of the Autobots here on Earth. Becky's father, Prowl, was second-in-command, and Josh's father, Jazz, was third-in-command. Who does that leave to lead?"

Everyone looked at Wheeljack.

"No," Wheeljack stated.

"Agreed," everyone else replied.

"Skyfire?" Jess suggested.

There was a _blip_ noise as Skyfire joined the conversation via comm. links from his space jet form outside.

"_I'm an international air bus,"_ Skyfire stated.

MJ, inside Skyfire, added in, _"I'm his driver."_

"Teletran One?" Jack suggested.

"**Negative,"** the _Ark's_ female computer stated, **"I am the Autobots' information bank and nothing more."**

"Oh stop playing dumb, Ben," Max said, rolling his eyes. "_You're_ the leader now."

"_What?"_ Benjamin exclaimed.

"Duh," Jess said, agreeing with Max. "You're Optimus Prime's kid! Of _course_ you're the leader!"

"You gotta admit that you pretty much were the leader even _before_ the boss bots got arrested," Wheeljack agreed. "Optimus let you do your own thing here and Prowl only filled out forms."

"So, _boss bot_," Josh said teasingly, winking at the startled-looking Benjamin, "What are your orders?"

Benjamin looked around at all the staring faces and looked at the floor. He walked forward then paced back and forth, staring beyond the floor and into plans only he could see.

"Depleted forces in Europe with Optimus, Ratchet, and 'Bee gone…" He muttered, as he always did when thinking hard, "Need people to take down the Labs… Europe war too strong for mere humans…"

Finally, he looked up at the waiting party. Taking a deep breath, he spoke his mind and accepted his responsibilities as leader of the Autobot Army.

"Okay," he said. "Optimus, Bumblebee, and Ratchet were among the strongest forces in the war in Europe against the Neo-Nazis and will need to be replaced. It's too dangerous for anyone who isn't in the army or made of metal so… Anne, Josh, Becky, Wheeljack, you can ride Skyfire over there to help the forces there keep Europe free. Skyfire will have to help in anyway he can: Protection, fighting, carting troops and the injured around, _anything _he can do, he should do. You'll probably have to report to Sunstreaker or Sideswipe, since they're the only other Autobots in the area Optimus and the others were in, right, Teletran?"

"**Affirmative, Master Benjamin,"** Teletran One confirmed.

"Jack, you can work as the main communications man here at the base with Teletran One. Jess, Max: you two and I will see to recruiting some replacement mechs for Prowl, Jazz, and Ironhide and work with Sam in tracking and breaking down Breaker Labs' main base of operations, wherever it may be."

"_Anything Skyfire and I can do, Ben?"___MJ asked.

"Just keep doing what you're doing, guys," Benjamin said with a small smile. "Be the 'international air bus'. And like I said: If the United Nations army needs you, you help them. I know being the go-to guy in war will be trying, but please do try. Our elites are gone."

"Alright, everyone," Benjamin finished up, clapping his hands. "Get some sleep. It's been a long night and we're going to have a _lot_ to do tomorrow. I'll see about calling up some mechs for the replacement Breaker Lab party…"

Thus ordered, everyone went their separate ways into the _Ark_ to rest. Most, though, were still scared for what would happen to the arrested Autobots, or how exactly they were going to maneuver on a skeleton crew of soldiers when almost everyone else was under the command of another Autobot general or too busy with their own groups on patrols and duties. Max spotted Sam heading towards the visitors' section the ship. Narrowing his eyes in distaste, he marched after Sam.

Sam perked his head up when he heard Max approaching, then turned around, only to have Max's face thrust into his own.

"You," Max hissed. "You filed the anonymous tip, didn't you?"

"Why, Max," Sam cooed, placing a hand on his chest in an injured gesture, "I'm _appaled_ that you would see me petty so much as to do something so treacherous when I have such a small relationship with the Autobots!"

"Yeah, and your little _speech_ back on the mountain was a little hot just to be a personal opinion," Max sneered sarcastically.

"You're right," was Sam's unexpected agreement. Suddenly, he moved forward, shoving Max against the wall. Grind, the skateboard strapped to Max's back, clattered against the wall and Max grunted in surprise.

"It's the personal opinion of everyone who has a decent heart on this planet," Sam snarled. "You don't really think people would just shake off something like loosing entire families in the city that _you_ sunk, did you?"

"I didn't sink it!" Max defended, "It was Rumble! He hit the ground too hard—"

"Go ahead, Max," Sam hissed, backing away from Max, as if disgusted to touch the yellow-haired Effort. "Go on and keep making excuses like a little kid, because that's all you are." He turned away and threw a hand up in dismissive disgust, "A little kid."

Max watched Sam walk away a few steps, and, determined to get in the last word he spoke, calling out to Sam.

"I'm not going to let you hurt my friends!" he yelled. "I'll fight you to my last breath before that happens!"

Sam simply nodded, refusing to turn around and let Max see his amused smirk, and went on to his room. Once in side the bland guest room, no one heard his next words.

"I don't want to fight you, Max," he whispered, "I just want to have a little _fun_."

Max, meanwhile, felt a knot growing in his stomach; the same knot that had warned him of many a failed mission before the mission had failed. He swallowed the lump in his throat and headed to his room, quietly praying that all would be well for his friends.

- - - -

Optimus supposed that he could be grateful that he hadn't been locked in a pair of stasis cuffs like a common criminal and had actually been locked in a guest room on the spacecraft instead of being put in the brig like a disobedient soldier. But some how, being locked in the comfortable guest quarter was worse, even an insult, than the brig; it was mocking his rank and how far he was falling, and it was teasing him that sure, he could leave, but the door was locked and guarded by a couple of guards just outside. He wondered if the others felt like him…

Suddenly, the spaceship shuttered to a stop and the lights flickered. He looked up and around, his hands itching when they couldn't draw a gun or turn into an energon axe. Was the ship malfunctioning? Were Decepticons attacking?

After a moment, the ship shuttered as it returned to moving and the lights once again gained their strong glow. The door slid open and his guards peeked in. Optimus could see the reluctance in their optics: They still considered him a hero and felt bad that they had to hold him captive.

"What was that?" Optimus asked.

"Just a minor flux getting out of Earth's atmosphere, Optimus," one of the young guards replied, "You okay?"

"Yes, thank you," Optimus replied.

The guards smiled a little and appeared to be about to continue talking. However, they both looked up when they heard approaching footsteps and quickly retreated and shut the door. There was a rude clack as the door's lock was initiated and once more Optimus was locked in his room. After a moment of staring at the door that would have opened for him in any other situation, he walked over to the bunk and sat down, staring at the ceiling.

_A flux exiting the Earth's atmosphere,_ He wondered mutely, _Skyfire has entered and exited the atmosphere hundreds of times on his missions off Earth and experienced no such flux…_

- - - -

Meanwhile, the brawny red and yellow weapons carrier mech unloaded the Autobots' weapons onto a rack built into the wall divided into five feet by five feet squares, down in a secluded corner of the storage bay area. He placed Jazz's weapons in one section, Optimus' in another, and so on. Ironhide's weapon array took up two whole sections of the rack wall.

The mech shook his head in amazement at Ironhide's weapon array before tapping at a control panel by the door and leaving. Once he left, a glowing pale purple force field covered the weapons racks and blocked the door way, thus securing the confiscated weapons.

Up against the ceiling along one wall was an air vent. Now the screen of the vent was kicked out of its frame. Before it clattered to the floor, though, it stopped, hovering for a moment over the air, before gently settling itself on the floor.

Viva la telepathy.

A familiar dark blue hover camera floated out of the vent and landed on the floor. Behind him followed a black and yellow robot bird. Buzzsaw set down the cassette player he carried and it quickly changed to Soundwave.

"Confess: Unsure that objective would not reachable," Soundwave stated, "Compliments to Buzzsaw for fast flying."

Buzzsaw squawked quietly in thanks before flopping onto his front with an exhausted, whistling sigh. When they had detected the Autobot ship that would take them directly to their destination leaving the atmosphere, it had appeared that they would not make it in time. But due to Skynet's telepathy stalling the ship and the surprisingly fast flying of Buzzsaw, they had just _barely_ managed to sneak in through an exterior air vent before it had shut up against the space vacuum.

Now they looked around, seeking a hiding place. Skynet saw some supply crates stacked near by and pointed. Nodding in understanding, Soundwave pressed a button on his shoulder.

"Buzzsaw: Return," he ordered.

Buzzsaw folded his wings to himself and tucked his chest against himself, flattening and shrinking to become a typical yellow and black cassette that flew up and into Soundwave's waiting chest. The two went over to the crates and Soundwave transformed first, dropping down to hide in the shadows of the crates. Transforming back down into his hover camera alt-form, Skynet floated over and settled down in the shadows of the boxes right beside his father. Once settled, he scanned the ship.

No; most of the mechs here were either too stupid or too firm in their being to be swayed. None had a particular useful strength, a deceptive mind ready for cultivating, or even had the desire for change. As far as they were concerned, life was just fine the way it was: a little scary with the war, but fine, none the less. It was somewhat pitiful, but no matter.

Skynet's cooling fan spun, making an electronic sigh in disappointment. There were _so_ many people, and yet, so few actual candidates for his campaign. Cassetticon handlers like Soundwave and Blaster made choosing Cassetticons look so easy with their large number of Cassetticons. Skynet had clearly underestimated the fact that they had wandered for eons during war and he had just started. At this rate, he might have another Cassetticon sometime next year.

Feeling with in himself the compartment where news footage tapes were ordinarily stored, he felt to make sure, once again, that his first and thus far only Cassetticon was in place. He had inherited a sort of private sub-space area from his father as part of his Transformer abilities and could store much more than just a lone tape there. The tape, now, slept in a sort of half-daze, ready to leap into action and yet, ready to continue waiting inside Skynet for orders. The Cassetticon had been scared when Skynet had changed him, but that was to be expected when such things happened. Now he was just tired from the change.

The Cassetticon, sensing Skynet's attention, mentally waved, showing that all was fine for him.

Satisfied, Skynet settled down for the long flight to Cybertron.

- - - -

"Dr. Moriguchi, sir, the Autobot elites have been successfully apprehended, arrested, and are on their way to Cybertron," the messenger said. "The plane is almost ready for flight to pick up Base 63's caravan. Would you like to schedule the flight now?"

Moriguchi allowed the messenger to wait for several moments as he maneuvered his tweezers and scalpel inside his latest fleshling mutant dissection. He had found it rather fun to manipulate creatures' genetic coding, changing them into new freaks of nature while they were still in the embryo. This particular test subject could only be called "bestial and black". Beyond that, it was far too marvelously strange to explain. Its purpose? Simple: To be cut open and be examined. Most of the other Breaker Laboratory members still sought purpose in their tests, but Moriguchi just loved flat-out playing god with science.

The messenger's eyes noticeably twisted in confusion when he noticed that all the creature's organs were brightly colored in neon hues.

Amused at the messenger's reaction to the dissection, Moriguchi spoke.

"Yes; set it for take off at three," he replied. "And how are the other members of the Office doing? There appears to be a body count growing around here."

"The Duke of Delaware was found poisoned last night and we have reason that Velma Hoissen, the CEO of the uniform company, is behind it. We're just barely keeping Duncan Ryanne of Moscow from killing her; he and the Duke were good friends, you know."

"Hmm, fascinating," Moriguchi said optimistically, putting the heart of his organism in a dish. "It seems that our Office members are dying off all on their lone some at a faster rate the closer we get to our goal. You are dismissed."

When the obedient messenger had gone, once more Moriguchi pulled out his list. He crossed the Duke's name off in red pen and looked around for a differently colored pen. He looked at the organism, shrugged, and dunked the tips of his tweezers in the black, watery blood of the creature. These, he drew across the names of Velma and Duncan, making the blood turn up as a dark, dark navy blue on the paper. Red was dead, blue meant "going, too".

"Five down, with two coming, soon to be seven to go," he said with a small smile before he tucked the paper back in his coat and resumed his gruesome hobby.


	10. Visions and Predictions

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 10: Visions and Predictions**

_ The classic rhythm-roar of the waves tumbling against the sandy beach dominated the air, sometimes pierced by the cry of sea gulls. The heat radiated up from the sand while the summer sun beat down from above, being lessened only by the cool air coming from the salty ocean. In the distance, he saw a red Ford truck roll over the sandy dunes and stop. Its side door opened and a hover camera floated out. _

_The Ford transformed into a busty red femme, carrying a contraption of weapon at her side. The weapon suddenly transformed and leaped away from the femme, taking the form of a pony-sized Tasmanian devil robot. The creature bounded about playfully in the waves that washed up on the beach, chasing after the foam. The femme laughed as the hover camera took the form of a hansom black mech with a white face guard and a dark purple visor. He wrapped an arm around the femme's shoulders and slid his face mask aside to kiss the femme._

_The two got lost in their kiss as an entire caravan of vehicles came to the beach after them. They assumed robot mode before powering down into human form, but some kept their robot form and they all began to play on the beach. After several minutes, one of the smaller mechs, a brown fellow with over-sized fists, inched near the kissing couple._

"_Psst, hey," he whispered, "You gotta breathe __sometime__."_

_The black and white mech kicked at the Cassetticon with no real harm intended. The Cassetticon scampered off to join a game of volley ball with the others. Max wanted to get a closer look at everyone, but he couldn't see them._

_Suddenly, he wanted to go join them. He transformed, turning into a four-wheeled craft with an open frame—a jeep? Gold cart? Go-cart?—and sped forward, leaping off of the top of the dune he was on and cheering as he came down to join the play._

- - - -

Max woke up as his alarm clock began to buzz. Groaning, he rubbed his face before rolling over in bed and punching the clock, shutting it up. Dressing into baggy jeans, a brown belt to hold them up, and red high-top sneakers with an ancient red ACDC shirt, faded from time, he stuck his favorite green and yellow beanie on his bright yellow-haired head before strapping on his harness. He exited his messy room aboard the _Ark_ and dropped Grind on the ground. Hopping onto the skateboard, he sped off through the halls, making his way to the rec. room where the Autobot Efforts usually met in the morning for breakfast.

_That dream,_ he thought. _It was so nice I didn't want to wake up. But where were we? And who were those people? I hope I dream that again. Maybe it's a vision of the future? I've been having those a lot lately. I hope so. _

When he got there, the others were already awake and finishing breakfast. Josh and Becky were in their same black and white Transformer-print uniforms and in their usual flirty bantering. Jess had donned on brown cameo cargo pants and plain tank top with army boots and a brown handkerchief around her hair, which was tied in a long pony tail. She was polishing her large home-made gun, Pointblank. Sam wore his same blue jeans and red shirt with a white stripe down the sides and a dark blue visor over his eyes under his curled red hair.

Anne had managed to finally become human and now wore, of all things, a red jump suit with a white front, matching her short, flirty-hair-style red and white hair. Max pulled up to a quick stop, his eyes widening in shock. He looked at Josh and pointed at Anne. Josh motioned for him not to mention the fashion No-no. Max shrugged. At least Anne looked _good_ in the 1960's style jumpsuit.

"Well, well," Anne said, "Look who decided to wake up!"

"Aw come on, Anne," Max said, rolling over to the table where toast and beacon had been set out. "A growing boy needs his sleep."

"More like a lazy boy," Anne muttered.

"No thanks, I'm not a furniture brand," Max joked.

"Good morning, everyone," Benjamin said, entering the room. "Ready? Great, come on then: Skyfire and MJ will drop Max, Jess, Sam, and I in the town that the Breaker Labs caravan was last seen. Then they'll fly Josh, Becky, Wheeljack, and Anne off at the war zone in Europe. Let's move, people!"

"Hey!" Max exclaimed, rolling after the party as he stuffed a doughnut into his mouth. "I haven't eaten yet!"

"Sorry, Max, no time," Benjamin said in a half-distracted manner, "We got to get the caravan before it moves off."

"Then maybe you should have woken up earlier," Sam suggested.

"Well, jeez, I was told the meeting was at seven, isn't that early enough?" Max asked snappily.

"The meeting was at seven, so you should have gotten up _earlier_ to get ready for it," Jess pointed out.

"I think a certain band said 'My clock's early because I know I'm always late'," Sam ventured.

"Fall Out Boy," Jess exclaimed excitedly, "I _love_ that band!"

"Crappy band," Max said, rolling his eyes.

"Now, Max," Benjamin said gently. "I know you're not a morning person, but bear with us, okay?"

"Okay, okay, okay," Max said as they all went into Skyfire, "Jeez, why is everyone busting my butt today?"

"So, Ben," Anne ventured, "Did you get Transformers to help us on this mission?"

Max's shoulders slumped in disbelief as the group easily turned to ignoring him without so much as a hitch.

"Yeap," Benjamin replied as Skyfire took off, "We'll meet them on the ground in our destined town."

Max rolled his eyes, but went over to the back of Skyfire to wait for them to land.

- - - -

Skyfire dropped Benjamin, Max, Sam, and Jess outside of a town at the foot of the mountain where the exploded Break Labs base had been. They were set down at a scenic look out point, over looking the valley. Now in the current summer, all was a healthy, fresh green below them, traced through with black and brown paved and dirt roads and spotted with white and other brightly colored homes and buildings. Once Skyfire left, Jack immediately called out to them from the cell phones the party had.

"_Jack Turbine running the hot lines back at the __Ark__,"_ Jack announced. _"Ya'll got to the rendezvous okay?"_

"Um, yeah, Jack," Jess said, unclipping her phone and talking into it. "How--?"

"_Dude, I see why Transformers choose built-in comm. links; these cell phones are __way__ too easy to hack into and control. I'm gonna work on a proper communicator while I'm baby sitting the __Ark__."_

"The _Ark_ can take care of herself with Teletran One guarding it," Sam said.

"_Say that to the laser burns…"_

"_**Actually,"**_ the feminine computer voice of Teletran One commented. _**"I am neither male nor female. I used a masculine voice when the Autobots originally lived in the **__**Ark**__**. I use the feminine voice for a mere matter of change."**_

"Trans-sexual computer, nice," Sam snickered.

"_**I **__**have**__** no gender, Master Sam,"**_ Teletran One corrected.

"So you're by?" Sam suggested.

Jess slapped him upside the head, bidding him to be quiet.

"So, Ben," Max asked when he turned to Benjamin, "Who're our Autobot partners?"

"Here they come now," Benjamin said, nodding up the road.

Jess, Max, and Sam all turned when they heard the crunch of tires over dirt. Sure enough, coming down to them from up the road was a green army jeep and a red car. As the two approached, Benjamin stepped out into the middle of the dirt road and waved his arms over his head. The two vehicles stopped and transformed.

"Hound! Cliffjumper!" Jess cheered.

"Hey, Benjamin," Hound greeted, "Sorry about what happened with Optimus and the other Effort fathers. I'm sure what ever misunderstanding's been created will clear up soon."

"And I can kick the aft of who ever filed in the complaint!" Cliffjumper snarled. "I bet it was Sunstreaker! He never _did_ like going along with what Optimus said…"

"Nice to see you guys haven't changed a bit," Benjamin said with a smile. To the others he said, "Guys, I'm sure you're acquainted with Cliffjumper and Hound. Hound, Cliffjumper, this is Sam: He's going to help us find the Breaker Lab caravan he spotted"

"Nice to meet you," Hound said politely.

Cliffjumper, though, got on one knee and thrust his face closer to Sam's. Sam leaned back, his eyes widening behind his dark blue visor as Cliffjumper looked him up and down in distrust.

"You sure this guy's trustworthy?" the red Autobot asked.

"He's the only lead we have on Breaker Labs," Benjamin said with a hopeless shrug. "Anyway, you 'bots were the only guys I could bring into our operations without too much upset in the schedules of the Autobot forces

"Great idea, Benjamin," Sam said, grinning widely. "With the Autobot elites in custody because of that dumb misunderstanding, the Autobots don't need no upset, yeah?"

"Yeah, right," Max agreed, narrowing his eyes in distrust at Sam.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jess asked, checking to make sure that Pointblank was at her side. "Breaker Laboratories isn't going to come to us if we just sit here!"

"Alright then," Hound said as he turned back into a jeep. He opened his jeep doors, "Benjamin, you and Sam can ride in me."

Cliffjumper rolled his optics, but shot one last glare at Sam before transforming and dropping down onto all four wheels. He grumbled as Jess and Max got into Cliffjumper. Led by Sam's directions, Hound led the way with Cliffjumper behind him. While Jess talked about guns from Cliffjumper and tried getting him to tell the secret of how he managed to pull of his famous trick of pulling enormous guns from no where, Max's mind raced.

_How am I going to convince the others that Sam isn't what he says he is?_ He mutely wondered. _I mean, sure, I don't know what he is either, but he's definitely __not__ a friend like the others think. He's got something planned, and I intend to catch him red-handed and stop him, but how? No one believes me because I'm just the "dumb skater boy". Wait a sec…_

Max's sky blue eyes drifted towards Cliffjumper's dashboard.

_Cliffjumper, yeah!_ He realized triumphantly, _Cliffjumper hates traitors and Sam could definitely be called a traitor! If I could get Cliffjumper to help me in keeping an eye on Sam and keeping the two-faced creep from pulling one over on my friends, then the others will __have__ to listen to me! But I'll have to talk to him in private. The others would probably tease me too much if they heard me talking to Cliffjumper about this…_

- - - -

The cargo plane ride had been a long and bumpy one and Moriguchi would rather not like to

think about what Juggernaut had done to his meal of a live chicken, but other than that, all was well. Juggernaut would only be brought out if certain _complications _turned up while retrieving the caravan. Until then, he would rather like to keep the ugly beast in its cage and out of sight. What had occupied his trip was a phone conference between himself and the surviving members of BLOOD.

_"This is an outrage!"_ one man cried from the transportable phone unit, _"When I signed up with this, I just wanted to make the United States' west coast my oyster, not create massive genocide!"_

"We have already been through this, Governor Jacques, "Moriguchi said, speaking a little loud over the planes' engine noises. "You signed the contract, you funded us, you're with us until the end or you're hopelessly and totally doomed."

_"As blunt as ever, Dr. Moriguchi,"_ a female sighed. _"Now, about the Duke's death…"_

"What about it?" Moriguchi asked. "He was poisoned, but he had many enemies, Madam Velma. Honestly, I would think that a lady who runs a uniform company officially, but traffics drugs all over the world on the side would be more accepting of a business colleague's death."

_"Oh, they were __far__ more than just friends,"_ a scratchy male voice laughed.

_"Shut up, Duncan!"_ Velma snarled. _"You only hide papers! You have no worth to your word."_

_ "Hide papers!?_ " Duncan roared. _"Do not forget, __Velma__, that if I didn't 'hide papers', no one in this organization would be able to so much as move a shit without the authorities know about it! I pay the money to cover up our movements from the air traffic towers and satellites! Don't tell me that I just hide papers!"_

Moriguchi smirked and relished in smug victory as Velma and Duncan continued to fight. How would Duncan feel if he found out that everyone he was paying off was really one of Moriguchi's personal Breaker Lab agents? The agents got ten percent of the look-away fees, but the rest Moriguchi put into buying supplies and material for the two thousand-member science force. Taking money from his own to provide for his own may seem idiotic at first glance, but he thought of it as a transfer of funds from an unreliable bank to a better investor.

Deciding that they had bickered enough, he bellowed into the phone, "ENOUGH!! Do not forget that we are of the same faction here! General Grimm how goes the war in Europe?"

_"It goes well, sir," _a French-German accented man replied, _"The Royal British Air Force has us pinned down, but we are figuring out how to get past them."_

"Do the Neo-Nazi forces suspect of a double agent in their midst?"

_"Nein, sir, they still merely see me as an officer and nothing more."_

"Good, good. Then you will be ready to take military action when the revolution comes?"

_"Yes, sir,"_ was the welcoming answer.

_"Sir,"_ a timid-sounding female spoke up, _"If I may speak? Concerning double agents, isn't is strange how our Asian scientists, Dr. Sa, Hamada, Ito, and Haru, were all killed recently from a splinter cell force?"_

_ "What, you think that we have a racist in our midst?"_ Duncan laughed.

God, how Moriguchi hated Duncan's sense of humor.

"That was a mere mishap from the Transformers and serves as a warning to the rest of us what happens when we are so reckless to be caught, Miss Effie," he said gently. "The good doctors foolishly let their guard down and were promptly slaughtered."

Miss Effie, the wide-eyed, do-evil-for-good woman emitted a bird-like gasp in horror. Ugh, if she weren't one of the best doctors in the world believing that she was actually going to help the world by partially destroying it, Moriguchi would have set Juggernaut on her a long time ago. He had tried to go without her medical advise and funds in his plans for a short time, but realized that she was needed for just a little while longer yet.

Now, let's see, Governor Jacques, Velma, Duncan, Grimm, Effie, there were two more people Moriguchi would have to talk to in order to check in with. They were also the only two people he had reluctance in planning their deaths, considering that they were people after his own heart.

"Doctor Rosie and Star, are you there?" he called.

_"Doctor Moriguchi,"_ soft masculine and female voices replied.

"How is the construction of our main weapons going?"

_"One unit it complete and the other two are awaiting final parts,"_ the female, Rosie, said in her soft, ice-cold voice. _"They will be ready for the revolution soon enough."_

"Good. Star, you said that you've found a new process of Effort manipulation? I must admit, I'm curious as to how you can _hack _a _Transformer brain _in a _human body_."

_"Yes, Great One,"_ Star replied, showing a great deal more awe than his twin sister for Moriguchi.

As Moriguchi listened to the process, his fascination and awe grew while the other peoples' horror did like wise. To them, it was a barbaric manipulation of one's very soul and intellect. To Moriguchi, it was genius. Brutal, but genius, like removing a pet's reproductive organs to prevent repopulation, or bombing Japan. It was open to debate by certain "nobler" parties, but if looked at with a cold, emotionless logical point, it made perfect sense.

"How can we test this?" he asked with his hunger for experimentation evident in his voice. "_When_ can we test this?"

_"We can test it as soon as you bring us an Effort,"_ Rosie replied._"Any Effort, just as long as the subject is a Transformer Effort, we can try it out."_

"It's genius!" Moriguchi burst out. "If what you say is true, we can have the small, quick size of a human with the brute strength of a Transformer tied together in an intelligent bridge of sense, _nothing _like our idiotic brute of an Effort, Juggernaut," he spat. "Yes, I will bring an Effort to you as soon as possible for the experiment. Ah, splendid, splendid! I am so proud of you!"

_ I just might not kill you!_ He added silently, but covered his mouth before it could step out into the air.

_"S-s-sir," _Jacques ventured, _"Don't you think that this is going too far? I mean, after all these are children we are talking about here, and- and they are already in a tough enough situation as it is. We signed up for world domination, not cruel experimentation and child abuse."_

_ "I agree," _Effie added, _"Our funders will most __definitely__ not approve."_

"Jacques, Effie," Moriguchi said coldly and darkly, _"We are called Breaker Laboratories, as if we are breakers of worlds. We destroy things simply to find out how they break. Our initials spell out __blood__ for Christ's sakes!! How much more obvious does it have to be made to point out that this isn't Green Peace you are dealing with here!?_

" _As for our funders; if they are really so against it, then by all means, they may away from the table. But let them know that the instant they say that they quit, they will relinquish all protection from our wrath come the revolution and we will openly show them to be our supporters. So not only will they loose all credibility in the public's sight, but __their__lands__will__burn__ with the rest of the world when the time comes. You tell them that, Effie. Then see if they'll approve or not."_

An uncomfortable silence followed. All of them had been brought together with cooing promises of cleaning the world of its weakness and of power and riches. But like so many things that sounded good on paper and in words, like communism, genetic perfection, and countless building and bridge blue prints, it turned out to be anything but nice in real life. Now they found themselves trapped on a train going somewhere they don't want to go. If they tried getting off, the ticket master would shoot them, and even if they made it past the ticket master, they would be destroyed by the wilderness waiting for them outside. Now all they could do was take the trip and hope that the next stop wasn't as bad as they thought.

"Now," Moriguchi went on. "General Grimm: Keep helping the Neo-Nazis strike down the countries. The more the world is ruined before we get out, the less likely chance we'll have to vaporize it. You alert us if they ever make a break for Russia and stop such advances. Rosie, Star, get ready for an Effort. Optimus' brat, Benjamin, is chasing us like a dog after a light. It'll be easy to capture him or one of his team mates. Duncan, keep everybody's heads turned while we pass through the air space. Everyone else: Keep doing as you have been doing. Our plans will all come to maturity soon enough."


	11. Blitzwing's Unwilling Brother

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 11: Blitzwing's (Unwilling) Brother**

Starscream waited with his arms crossed across his chest while his foot tapped the hill impatiently. Thundercracker and Skywarp stood behind him, quietly talking through hand motions and whispers. Willium Walter stood near them, looking like a miniature toy amongst the Transformers. Cold Blitzwing was facing away from them all, one hand on his hip while the other pressed two fingers to the side of his head, his face set in a grim look of determination and attention.

Starscream opened his mouth as he was about to say something marking his inpatients, when Blitzwing turned and punched him in the face. He went right back to his exact same pose, as if nothing had happened. Thundercracker and Skywarp caught Starscream when he stumbled back as a little energon leaked from his nasal component. He placed a hand to his face and looked at the energon on it. He glared at Blitzwing and appeared about to say something when Skywarp covered his mouth.

"I'm pretty sure we shouldn't test the mad man and just keep silent," Thundercracker whispered to Starscream.

Starscream rolled his optics and sighed in frustration, but shook off the lesser Seekers as he wiped the last of the energon from his face. Suddenly, Blitzwing's wings perked up in attention. Turning around, he flashed a devilish grin to the assembled men.

"The order has been given to take this chance, in the Autobot Elites' absence, to move our plans forward as far as we can," he announced. "Gentle-bots…"

Blitzwing leaped up, drawing his arms and legs with in himself as his wings extended, turning him into a tan, black, and dark purple jet.

"Kill them all!" he whooped.

"Finally!" Skywarp declared he and the other Seekers ran forward, jumping off the hill and transforming into jet form before shooting out over the town.

Willium drew one of his guns and shot thrice into the air. The Neo-Nazi army moved their forces forward once more. Lesser-ranking Decepticon flyers flew from the wood lands, their hiding place, and followed the elite Seekers and Decepticon Effort into the air space over the town. With in moments, the UN forces with in the town found themselves overwhelmed by Neo-Nazis with Decepticons backing them. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were among the score of Autobots protecting the town and found that they were in a sore spot quickly.

Okay, at least _Sideswipe_ thought they were in a sore spot. Sunstreaker had lost his sanity (like his optic) amidst a warrior's rage.

"_Come and get me you disgusting Decepticons!"_ Sunstreaker roared to the sky, but with significantly more cuss words.

"Oh, Primus, I wish Optimus were here," Sideswipe muttered, wrestling to keep a Decepticon jet from strangling him. "We're completely disorganized and have no idea what's going on!"

"We're killing Decepticons and that's all you need to know, brother," Sunstreaker told Sideswipe.

A Decepticon charged Sunstreaker and the latter seized the former with in his yellow metal arms. A great crack and squeak of twisting metal sounded out and Sunstreaker had snapped the unlucky Decepticon's neck.

A red and white jet plunged from the sky behind Sunstreaker, transforming at the last minute into Starscream, who kicked Sunstreaker in the back of the head and knocking him to the ground on his stomach. Before Sunstreaker could get up again, Starscream shot him with his null cannons, paralyzing the Autobot.

Seeing his brother's plight, Sideswipe punched his opponent repeatedly in the face, knocking him off of himself. Seizing his fallen gun, Sideswipe shot his opponent dead before jumping to his feet and sprinting to rescue his brother.

"Sunstreaker!" Sideswipe yelled.

A purple flash appeared over Sideswipe and he was tackled to the ground with the much larger Skywarp on top of him.

"What about him?" Skywarp snickered.

Starscream, meanwhile, had pinned Sunstreaker's head to the ground with his boot and had his shoulder cannons pointing at Sunstreaker's back.

"I have a little something to repay for you last time we met," Starscream chuckled.

Sunstreaker gritted his teeth, unable to stop his fate.

It was at that moment that an explosion sounded out overhead, signaling that someone had just stopped or sped by in the speed-of-sound field. Everyone looked up in time to see a massive white space carrier jet hover over head before opening its underside door. Becky, Anne, and Josh, all in Transformer forms, led by Wheeljack, jumped out, landing on a building roof before leaping down into the battle-filled streets. Skyfire transformed, landing with an earth-shaking quake in a ruined area of street and loaned his assistance in the battle.

Skywarp, Sideswipe, Starscream, and Sunstreaker were still staring up at the giant of Skyfire, wondering where the hell _he _had come from, when a strange sort of jet hissing came to their audio receptors.

A silver and black streak rocketed out of a side street and struck Starscream head-on, knocking him from Sunstreaker. Crying out in surprise, Starscream caught himself and seized his attacker, flying up into the air with the intention of dropping them and shooting them as they fell. When he was in the air and released his opponent, though, he was astonished to see that the Autobot could fly. Then he recognized him.

"Oh, you're Autobot Effort Josh, aren't you?" Starscream asked.

"One and only," Josh said with a cheeky grin.

"I'm really starting to hate you Effort types."

"And the day isn't even over yet," Josh chuckled.

Josh's mirror-like visor fell down over his optics and he shot forward, head butting Starscream in the chest. Starscream's jets spluttered and he lost some altitude, but he regained it and dove into combat with the younger Autobot.

Below them, Wheeljack and Becky were chasing back the Neo-Nazi forces as they led the UN forces in a charge. The new force was small, but with quality over quantity, they were proving to be giving the UN and small Autobot forces just the right edge to push back the opposition.

Anne bound around the battlefield, picking up stranded and injured UN soldiers from their hiding places and returning them to the main base, attacking Neo-Nazis, and generally being a nuisance to the Decepticons. Wheeljack showed off his superior experienced warrior skills while Becky showed that while she was new to the Transformer body, she was well skilled in martial arts. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe fought Skywarp, needing two mechs to fight the teleporting fool. Starscream continued to duel Josh.

"Gah, where's Thundercracker?" Sideswipe asked. "All we have to knock him out and we can take out this teleporting jerk!"

"Just concentrate," Sunstreaker instructed, "We'll get this jack knifing idiot if it's the last thing we do!"

- - - -

Thundercracker, meanwhile, was following Blitzwing's orders and following the tan jet on his circle of the town, systematically bombing the buildings below.

"Sir," Thundercracker ventured, "with all do respect, shouldn't I be fighting on the ground?"

"You and Skywarp seem to be suffering a rather nasty partnership," Blitzwing replied. "If your opponent knocks one of you out, he gets both. Hence, it is better to keep you two apart and thus, prevent such a partnership from exercising itself."

"SCORE!!!"

Skywarp was sent flying into the air by a strike from Sunstreaker upon the Autobot's triumphant shout, crashing into Thundercracker and knocking them both, spinning, from the air. After a moment of surprise, Blitzwing heaved a large sigh in annoyance.

"There will be those days, Blitzwing," he muttered to himself, "There will just be those days…"

"Sit still and die, Autobot!"

Blitzwing transformed and turned in the air towards Starscream's enraged shout. He was fighting Josh still, and in spite of being weaponless, the young Effort was doing well against the veteran warrior.

_I should be concerned about that, shouldn't I?_ Blitzwing thought.

_**What, that the stupid second-in-command of the Decepticon army is too pathetic to even take out a green horn rookie?**_ Hot Head asked with in Blitzwing's head. _**Yes, you should be concerned.**_

_Do they have a help hot line for that sort of problem?_ Random Blitzwing asked.

Random Blitzwing took control and leaned back in the air, propping an elbow in one hand while the other rubbed the chin of his red and black jack-o-lantern face. An Autobot flyer spotted his apparent distracted state and attempted to attack him from behind. Without even looking, Blitzwing turned both shoulder cannons to point behind him and shot a blast of ice and a blast of fire at the Autobot, knocking them from the sky.

"Then again," Random commented, "Maybe it's just that the boy has unlikely potential? Like Mentos and Dr. Pepper, or was it Coca-Cola?"

_Hmm, that's a point,_ Cold Blitzwing agreed. _He's young, quick, fast._

_**And a horrific mix of Transformer and human! **_Hot Head interrupted. _**Just shoot both of them out of the sky and fix **_**two**_** problems!**_

_Not so fast, Hot Head: Do not forget that _we_ are a "horrific mix" of Transformer and human,_ Cold reminded. _He is one of us._

"Ooh," Random exclaimed, "Then that makes him my…"

He aimed both shoulder cannons at the dueling Starscream and Josh and let loose an enormous jet of flame and ice at the Seeker.

"Little broooooooootheeeeeeeeeeer!" Blitzwing sang.

_**Great, you gave him an idea,**_ Hot Head told Cold.

Starscream saw the elements attacking and barely managed to dive out of the way. Josh was hovering behind him and gasped upon seeing the fire and ice coming at him. He attempted to copy Starscream and dive out of the way, but the fire and ice came upon him too quickly.

The flames reached him first, making him scream in pain as the heat singed his armor and attempted to melt his insides. The ice followed a moment after, hissing and popping on his armor as the freezing compound touched the scalding metal. It froze his jets and stiffened his joints, making him plummet to the ground in a dazed state. Before he hit the ground, though, Random Blitzwing plummeted down and caught him, bride-style.

Josh's optics flickered back to life. Upon seeing Random Blitzwing's face staring at him blankly at such a close distance, he shouted in surprise and attempted to escape.

"Where are you going, little brother?" Random Blitzwing asked, seizing Josh's ankle when he attempted to fly away.

"I'm not your little brother, Hitler-wannabe!" Josh yelled, dragging Blitzwing in circles in an attempt to get free.

"Aww, you compare me to the great Fuehrer?" Blitzwing asked, placing his free hand to his chest. "I'm touched!"

Josh turned to Blitzwing and shoved his free boot in Blitzwing's face, blasting the fire power with in the heel jet there to full power.

"_Let go of me!!"_ Josh bellowed.

Blitzwing screeched mechanically in pain as the jet fire singed his face and he released Josh, falling back out of the sky. At the last moment, Hot Head took over and did a back flip to land on a roof easily.

"**You little brat!"** Hot Head bellowed. **"You want fire power?"**

His shoulder cannons aimed up at Josh.

"**I'll give you fire power!!"**

"Oh slag," Josh muttered.

Josh managed to throw himself out of the way of the twin pillars of roaring flame that came up at him. Realizing that Blitzwing was too much for him at this point in life, Josh wheeled around and attempted to flee and seek another opponent.

"Leave him to his own devices, Josh," Josh muttered to himself. "You're not ready."

But Blitzwing had other plans, as he appeared in his Cold personality right over Josh and slammed an elbow between Josh's shoulder blades. Josh screamed as a stiff pain seized his back, paralyzing him and his jets and dropping him to the ground. He landed in a pavement-shattering sliding impact. Now, not only Josh's body numbed from the fire-ice attack and pressure point strike, but now his face ached from plowing the pavement.

Groaning, he sat up, his small wings drooping miserably, and shook the black rock off of himself. Behind him, Cold Blitzwing landed and crossed his arms across his chest, watching as the Autobot Effort regained his feet.

"Hmm, you are very strong for a robot of your age," Blitzwing said approvingly. "Perhaps you have a space in my army after all."

"There's no way I would join you," Josh growled, forcing himself to stand straight on unsteady feet. "You kill, I defend; it's as simple as that."

"Ah, but you forget that my army's goal is not to kill just anyone: Just the weak, and you, my boy, are not weak."

"Yeah, and what do you define as weak? What will you do when the 'weak' are all gone? When will you stop?"

"Join me and you'll live to see those answers."

"Screw you… all three of you."

Blitzwing's optics widened the smallest bit, as in surprise. Then Random took over and cackled loudly, making Josh take a step back in fright and confusion. Random Blitzwing was still laughing when he transformed and rocketed over Josh's head, slamming a fist into the side of Josh's head to knock him out. Anne came bounding around the corner in time to see this and cried out, running for Josh. But before he had even fallen to the ground, Blitzing came back and seized the boy up, stealing him away.

"Josh!" she cried out. Into her communication link, she cried, "Anne to Autobots! Anne to Autobots! Josh has been kidnapped by Blitzwing!"

- - - -

"Push forward while the elites are gone, he said," Starscream sneered, "It'll be easier without them, he said. Pha! Then what was that we experienced today down in that miserable village!?"

"A total loss, like usual," Thundercracker said, sipping at some energon apathetically.

Starscream slapped the energon cube from Thundercracker's hands.

"Precisely!" Starscream screeched, "Which is why _I_ should be leader! If _I_ were leader, we wouldn't loose to a bunch of Auto-scum and _fleshlings!_ If _I_ were leader—"

Blitzwing landed, literally, on top of Starscream, slamming him into the ground. The Seekers saw Josh's unconscious form in Blitzwing's arms, but said nothing; prisoners were normal, and questioning a crazy mech was certainly not necessary or useful.

"You wouldn't be mechs' landing pads?" Skywarp suggested to Starscream.

Blitzwing stepped off of Starscream and strode off. Starscream stood up, spitting grass and dirt out of his mouth.

"Mech!" he yelled, "I demand you answer for your actions and apologize--!"

Blitzwing didn't even bother slowing or looking back when he turned his shoulder cannons back and shot jets of fire at Starscream.

** - - - -**

Josh's aching head woke him up first. Grunting in pain, he turned over and felt himself brush up against something. He opened his eyes and saw the side of a dark purple and tan uniformed body sitting beside him in the grass. He gasped and sat up, ready to take to the air, but found that he was in his human form with human Blitzwing sitting beside him. They were in the tall grass of a large tree somewhere in the woods. The night was deep blue, silver, and black in color all about them. The pearly rays of the full moon filtered in through the canopy above. Night bugs buzzed about them and an occasional owl hooted. Blitzwing was staring up at the moon through a gap in the canopy with a calm, peaceful air.

Josh looked around and tried to shuffle away, but, without taking his eyes off of the moon, Blitzwing put a gentle hand on Josh's back.

"Wait," he said, "I ask for you only one hour then you may leave."

Josh hesitated. General Blitzwing the Second was a multi-personality whack job capable of snapping Josh's neck at any moment. How could Josh just be near him for an hour without being killed?

"Please," Blitzwing added.

It was a simple word, a pointless plea, and yet, it convinced Josh's body to ease up and settle down in the mulch beside Blitzwing. He sat stiffly, and certainly didn't _lean _on the Decepticon Effort, but neither did he run. He kept his attention on the TV-hum that told him that Blitzwing was of Decepticon compounds.

"Why have you brought me here? What do you want from me?" Josh asked.

"I just want to talk to my little brother," Blitzwing said.

"Little brother?" Josh asked with a scowl, "You know, at first I thought that that was a side ways insult or something, but now I'm not so sure. I am _not_ your little brother."

"Of course you are," Blitzwing said. "We are both part Transformer, part human. We are both warriors. We are mechs of both land and sky."

"We are both _so_ not related," Josh snorted.

"Ah, but you thought the same of Jazz once, long ago."

Josh was unable to counter act the good reason. He was absolutely _confident_ in the fact that he and the crazy triple changer were not related. But… he had a point about the relation to Jazz, and Breaker Laboratories was known for achieving unbelievable feats of science. It would be child's play to them to make two polar opposite Efforts siblings.

"Forget you," Josh snarled, "I'll never be your 'little brother'."

Rather than react with laughter or anger, Blitzwing sighed sadly.

"It is because I am considered 'crazy', isn't it?" he said, reaching into his coat.

Josh tensed, ready to dive behind a tree when bullets began to fly. But it was not a gun that Blitzwing drew out, but a device in the shape of a hockey puck with buttons in ring on its top. He pressed some buttons and the tiny hologramed faces of Random, Hot, and Cold Blitzwing appeared hovering in a tiny beam over the device, all three speaking and acting mutely.

"Contrary to popular belief, my personalities are not the result of mental ailment, but are my brothers," he said.

_Now _Josh was interested.

"Brothers?" he asked.

"Yes," Blitzwing said, looking at Josh with something of approval, glad that he had found a subject that Josh wouldn't react to with hostility. "When I first tried energon as a paid dare a long time ago and I got my personalities, I, too, thought that I was crazy and even checked myself into an asylum in an attempt to remove them. But in time, I realized that they were all their own identities. For example, Hot Head…"

He pressed a couple buttons and the Hot Head face hologram grew, becoming the primary image.

"You would think that he's my anger, but in truth, he is just loud and reflexively adds insults as apart of his speech pattern. Don't tell any one, but he's secretly a good cook, but we can't get him to do it for all the energon and begging in the world unless a pretty femme with the right temper forces him to. That's how we got to pay our rent for a while, actually, but that's off the point. Random…"

Random's face became the primary face.

"Random has neither Hot Head's fire, nor certainly not _my _calmness. Let's just say that if he had his own body," he chuckled, "We would be spending half our lives running from one bar to the next trying to stop his chaotic partying. He's the reason why, officially, we're banned from France, but, er, you're too young to hear such tales just yet."

He turned the hologram caster off and tucked it back into his coat.

"I will not lie to you: There are times when I am mentally unstable, what, with having two more than needed voices in my head, and directing genocide, and I may be perceived as evil for taking up the quest of purifying the world. But today, I came across an epiphany of some sort."

He linked his fingers behind his head and leaned back against the tree, staring up at the moon.

"You and the Autobot Efforts and my self and the Decepticon Efforts: We aren't _that _different, are we? We both have fleshling bodies, and we both have mechanical bodies. We both have hearts _and _Spark Chambers. We are in the borderlands of species; neither human, nor Transformer. Where do we belong? On Cybertron, on Earth, where? And none of our children will be pure, either, assuming that we are fertile. Certainly you have thought of this, considering that you, at one time, considered yourself human?"

Josh hadn't, being too busy fighting Decepticons to think things over. But in the quiet hours of the night, between the waking and dreaming world, he would feel a shiver run up his spine at remembering that at one time, he would have just been happy to find out whether he was a jock or a nerd in school. Now he was a robot: A freaking _flying _robot, for life's sake! Where the hell _did_ that put him!?

"And you know what is ironic?" Blitzwing went on, "I, myself, have taken up leading a force that believes in purity of genetic coding, and I, myself, am a mutt of metal and flesh!"

He slammed a fist into an exposed tree root, making the wood crunch as a tiny crater was left in it. He slumped over, propping his elbows on his knees as he gripped his head in his hands, becoming more vulnerable than what Josh had ever seen.

"It's unfair," Blitzwing sighed sadly, "We were created by Breaker Laboratories as apart of their science experiment. The only comfort I can get from it are my brothers-- my 'alternate personalities'—my powers, and the idea that maybe, just maybe, by being the proto-type for you, I could be considered, I don't know, _worth _the cost of being a freak."

"You… are a mutt who crusades for the pure breeds," Josh ventured.

Blitzwing sat up and nodded.

Josh gazed to the moon and the stars, trying to find an answer from their heavenly glow like humans are apt to do. The advice they gave him told him to tell the truth.

"I'm not your brother," Josh insisted, "And we're trapped on opposite sides, and I _will _fight you next time we meet as long as you bear the Decepticon insignia. But… maybe someday, when the war is over, we can… talk again."

Blitzwing smiled, propping his head up on one knee with a hand.

"That would be nice," he agreed.

- - - -

Blitzwing tried to convince Josh to join the Decepticons again. Josh said no and Blitzwing gave up. Josh and Blitzwing dueled quickly in human form, giving them the necessary wounds to convince their sides that Josh had fought for his freedom before Josh flew away. Blitzwing smiled as he watched the youth fly away and a red glow over took him, turning him into his Transformer form. But rather than have the blue-faced Cold personality that Blitzwing had been acting as, it was the black-red jack-o-lantern appearance of Random.

_You, _Cold Blitzwing said mentally. _Are a __master__ at acting!_

_**All that time and you didn't even make a bad pun, **_Hot Head commented with equal disbelief. _**That was impressive, for you.**_

"It is a gift," Random chuckled, "We aren't going to get a Decepticon any time soon, but at least we got a brother, whether he wants to be ours our not."

He broke out into cahoots of triumphant laughter as he did a back flip into the air and jet-mode, flying, backwards, through the air back to his camp.


	12. Orders

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 12: Orders**

Optimus Prime stood in the large prison cell with Jazz, Ratchet, Ironhide, Prowl, and Bumblebee. The walls and floor were pale blue, tinted purple by a reinforcing energon field. Their trip to Cybertron had been uneventful and, fortunately, unpublicized.

That last bit had Optimus slightly on edge; the media should be _all over_ the story of the Autobot elite soldiers being taken into custody for possible betrayal to the Cybertron Council. Yet when he and his fellow prisoners had been escorted to their new "home", there had not been one camera man, not one hover camera, and not even so much as a spare janitor tidying up the high-class prison halls. It was a relief that they wouldn't be embarrassed on TV, and yet, it worried him that he and his party might disappear without a trace. Or perhaps he had just forgotten how less brutal the Cybertronian media was compared to Earth's?

He and the other Autobots looked up when the beeping sound of a lock code being entered came from the door. When it opened, the Autobots stood if they were seated, but made no hostile moves. They all knew that they needed to be calm and patient with things and need not make a jail break escape. Still, Optimus couldn't help but release a hydraulic pressure sigh of relief upon seeing the blue and white robots that entered the room.

"Blurr, Mirage," he greeted, "It's been too long. How have the careers in politics been going?"

"Very good, sir," Mirage greeted, "And certainly more fitting to my social status, as well.

"Hi, Optimus!" Blurr greeted, "I'mreallysorrytoseeyouhere andyou'reprobablysurprisedtoseeus

HerebutMirageandI havemadeithigherupinthe a CouncilMember nowand I'moneofthe . meseenger,eh? Anyway, everywaywecaninyourcase."

"We appreciate that, Blurr," Ironhide stated.

Everyone looked at Ironhide, apparently surprised that he had understood the speedy robot so easily.

"What?" Ironhide asked, shrugging, "When you got a girl who talks fast while begging for tickets to a boy band concert, you pick up a few things."

"Well, as Blurr was saying," Mirage continued. "He and I have made our way up the Cybertron political ranks ever since we moved to this field of specialty after the initial Autobot-Decepticon War. I am even apart of the Cybertron Council while Blurr is one of the main officers in the Cybertron Intelligence Department. Because of our connections, we are doing all we can to ensure that this case doesn't become _too_ public, to protect your reputation. We will do everything we can to clear your names of the unfair crimes placed upon them."

"Thank you, Mirage, Blurr," Optimus thanked, "We appreciate it."

"Yeah," Jazz added. "But can we get some music or something in here? You forget how lifeless Cybertron sounds after a few years on Earth."

Ratchet smacked Jazz in the back of the head, already indicating that the request was denied.

"How are the children doing?" Prowl asked Mirage and Blur. "Are they doing okay on their own?"

"They'redoingswell,Prowl!" Blur replied proudly, "According torecentreports Benjaminsent Anne,Josh,BeckyandWheeljack towhereOptimus,BumblebeeandRatchethad Decepticonaft whileBenjamin,Max,andJess startedtheirownsmall partytofind BreakerLaboratories."

"They are doing fine," Mirage assured. "While Wheeljack has official control, off the record, Benjamin seems to have taken unofficial control of the Autobots and appears to be doing quiet well. You have quite a capable son there, Optimus."

"Yes," Optimus agreed, beaming proudly. "I do, don't I?"

- - - -

"That was a pretty impressive speech, you know."

Mextron turned away from where he was watching freed Asteroid Belt Prisoners torture their guard prisoners and saw the dark red and grey Seeker femme form of Smartmouth standing behind him, feet planted apart and hands on her hips.

"Thank you," Mextron stated.

"Yeah, it's actually really surprising," Smartmouth went on, looking to the starry sky over head. "Considering the fact that, last I checked; you _hated_ your old man, for, what was it? Oh yeah… _feeding you to the Breaker Labs bastards!!!"_

Mextron's optics shuttered shut in a simple blink.

"No need to shout, Smartmouth," he stated.

"But Mex," Smartmouth exclaimed. "That douche bag tried _killing_ you once! If it hadn't been for your sudden ability to change into a Transformer, you would be _dead_ by now!"

"And your point is?" Mextron asked.

"So why did you set up a total kick-aft awesome speech for him?" Smartmouth growled. "I'm surprised you even agreed to this rescue-and-recruit raid!"

"You know, Smartmouth," Mextron replied. "We are half Decepticon. Hence, we have no where else to go. _No one _accepts Decepticons, and even if they do, they would certainly never give us a chance to prove our worth! Megatron's faction is the only place where we are safe. So I'm willing to swallow some pride to put up with him and keep my crew safe. But you must admit that he has certain… _charisma_ to himself."

"Oh, yeah, sure, charisma," Smartmouth said, rolling her optics and nodding in sarcastic agreement.

She contorted her metal face up in a mean snarl and twisted her fingers into claws.

"Roar, on ward to victory, Decepticons!" she said in a low, mocking, raspy dialect. "Decepticons: Follow me!"

Mextron couldn't help but laugh as she an in one direction, than ran back, declaring, "Decepticons, retreat!"

"Smarts, stop!" Mextron laughed. "You'll get in trouble if you're seen as such!"

"Starscream, you fool!" Smartmouth snarled.

Mextron sat down hard on the ground, laughing at Smartmouth's antics as she played out a typical conversation between Megatron and his second-in-command: With one yelling and the other begging for mercy before the former beat the latter's aft.

High above them, though, Seeker Solarflare and Flickword watched. Solarflare's turbo fox, Corona, was sitting on the ground beside Solarflare and chewing on something. Let's just say that somewhere, a mech was looking for that "something" and didn't have all four limbs without it.

"Lord Megatron would not approve," Solarflare growled.

"Let them be, Solarflare," Flickword said. "It's no worse than what I've seen _Skywarp and Thundercracker _do. At least she's leaving out the lover relationship hints."

"Oh, fine," Solarflare sighed, rolling her optics as she turned to Flickword, "So, what now?"

Flickword's optics widened in surprise and his jerked oddly. Solarflare took a step back, but already the odd jerking stopped when Flickword's chest-mounted Decepticon insignia flashed. A hologram leaped from it, showing the upper body portion of Ferrofluid.

"_Hello,"_ he greeted. _"Like the new hologram communicator I installed on Flickword?"_

"First the optic bug now a hologram communicator?" Flickword asked, rubbing the side of his head as if it were sore. "Why am I suddenly the upgrade guinea pig now?"

"_Lack of powers leads to the easy equipping of upgrades, similar to writing on a blank paper,"_ Ferrofluid stated. _"Now, to business: Where is Mextron and Smartmouth? You have new orders straight from the top."_

Solarflare pressed her fingers to the side of her head, activating her short-range communications link as she looked over the edge of the roof at where Mextron and Smartmouth were.

"Hey, kids," she said. "Get up here; new orders."

Mextron and Smartmouth joined them a moment later on the roof and took the fact that Ferrofluid was being beamed from Flickword's chest in stride.

"What is it, Ferrofluid?" Mextron inquired.

"_Orders from Megatron,"_ Ferrofluid answered. _"Get the recruits into orderly squads, file them into the data base, and get ready for pick up; same as before, but with some additional details: Keep an optic out in Phase 5; Soundwave and Skynet will be running around on their secret mission."_

"I really wish I knew what Skynet is up to," Mextron sighed. "I know he can take care of himself, but I get nervous when ever he's not with in sight…"

"What? Worried that he's gonna hurt himself?" Smartmouth teased.

"No: I'm worried for the people _around_ him."

- - - -

"Sir, Velma and Duncan have killed each other," the messenger said. "Duncan shot Velma in her bed, but Velma had hired a hit on Duncan."

Moriguchi smirked, not even bothering to wait for the messenger to leave as he pulled his list from his jacket and crossed out the names of Velma and Duncan in red. Around them the other Breaker Laboratory agents bustled about, preparing to accept and load up the caravan of the base that had recently fled their location and promptly booby trapped it to blow up. Their location was a good one: Up in the hills surrounding the town, the abandoned air strip had more than enough privacy and space for them to use.

"Have the Italian man-- what was his name, the chap who builds all those speed boats and cars? Fur- something—have him take over Duncan's responsibilities of paying off people to ignore us. We don't need to replace Velma; her purpose was fulfilled anyway."

The messenger looked curiously at the list and finally dared to ask a question.

"Mr. Moriguchi, sir," he ventured, "Why have you ordered me to bring to you news of the other Office members?"

Moriguchi put away his list and pen before replying.

"Have you ever heard of the master mind's luck, boy?" he inquired.

The messenger was in his twenties, too old to be a boy, but he shook his head in response.

"It seems to go that when a machination of extraordinary proportions is being acted out and is actually succeeding, the leaders following the master mind of the machination are picked off, leaving the master mind to rule triumphantly over what is left. The number of dead bodies strewn about is measuring how complete the machination is. We are now down to six people of the original thirteen people of Breaker Laboratory's Office of Domination, including myself. That puts our plans at, oh, around half way complete."

"Who is the master mind with the luck?" the messenger asked.

"The one person in the entire group who stands back and lets the others act on their whims," Moriguchi replied. "The one person who is the most passive and yet, the most calm and collected. In short, the master mind of this situation is me."

- - - -

_Oh dear god, this was __not__ good._

_Black storm crowds crossed the skies at a rapid pace split only by thin slivers of light that taunted the darkness below. The ground was barren, hard, and cold. Small pools of icy water filled the shallowest of bowls in the rock. In the distance, he saw the remains of a city, but the skyscrapers had been twisted and morphed with extensions and bridges in between with sharp spires topping them, making them look more nightmarish than their traditional, bland, business-like selves._

_As Max looked up at the sky scrapers, a Transformer flew down from the clouds, drifting among the buildings. Suddenly, a black and white shape dove from the clouds above, landing on the unfortunate Transformer and pinning them onto a spire. Purple energon squirted into the air and the victim could only gurgle shortly before going limp. Their attacker, gruesomely enough, leaned over and began to feast on the victim. Max could see long, thin appendages acting as wings, and that the attacker was humanoid in shape, but beyond that, he could see nothing._

_"What __happened__ here?" Max whispered._

_"Death, death," a voice said beside him._

_He turned and was astonished to se Insecticon Shrapnel beside him. But the Insecticon looked more like an insect rather than anything else now. His armor was shaved and falling off in many places where it was not rusted, and he was severely dented in places. What ever had happened had deteriorated the Insecticon into a walking pile of scrap. Yet, it seemed oddly fitting that a creature modeling itself after an insect, a symbol of plague and end times, survived in such a barren landscape in such a miserable condition._

_The vision of Shrapnel ripped one of his rotting antennae out, examined it, and began to nibble on it. Max resisted the urge to freak out at the display of self-cannibalism._

_"What the hell!?" Max exclaimed, jumping back. "What are you doing out of the Asteroid Base Prison? Where are we? What happened here? What's all this?"_

_"The rest of the world burned, burned, when Moriguchi won, won," Shrapnel replied. "The Autobots and Decepticons, Decepticons, couldn't unite, when the time came, came so the world burned, burned. __All__ the worlds burned, burned. I'm the only one left, left, of the Decepticons, Decepticons."_

_"But why would Moriguchi __do__ all this?" Max asked._

_"Because he's crazy, crazy," Shrapnel, or the vision of him, replied, "He does things because he can, can. If he isn't stopped, stopped, __stopped__, all worlds will die, die, for his enjoyment, enjoyment."_

_The excess repeated words and twisted body frame showed that the years of survival had had their toll on the Insecticon. But wait; was this __the__ future, or a vision of it? Could it be changed? If it were only a vision, then how come Max was talking to it?_

_"Can this be changed?" Max asked. "Can we stop it? And how am I talking to you, anyway? And where are the others in this future?"_

_"Oh, sure, sure, you can change this, this," Shrapnel replied. "But the question is will you know __when__ to change it, it? The Transformers didn't unite when the time came, came. I certainly hope that you can fix that, that, now that you know about this, this."_

_"Okay, but how am I talking to you? How do I know this is not a dream?"_

_To this, Shrapnel smirked._

_"How do we know that reality itself is not a dream, dream?" he asked._

- - - -

"Max, wake up!"

Max jumped when Jess slapped the table in front of him. He sat up and looked up at Jess. They were inside a small diner in side the town they had been dropped off at. Outside, Hound and Cliffjumper were parked in their vehicle forms and Sam appeared to be busy poking around in side of Hound's engine under Benjamin's supervision.

"Oh, come on!" Max whined, "I was just getting to the good part!"

"Of what, drooling on the table?" Jess asked. "Come on, Sam's almost done fixing Hound."

"I _still_ don't think that it was a good idea to let _Sam_ repair him," Max growled, following Jess out of the diner.

"Why? He's actually really good at it," Jess said.

As if to agree with her, Sam dropped Hound's hood as the Autobot jeep revved to life happily.

"Hey, not bad, kiddo, you're a natural!" Hound complimented. "Wouldn't even know I had a leak just ten minutes ago if I didn't almost slide off the road with it!"

"No sweat, big guy," Sam replied with a proud grin, "Anything for the Autobots!"

Max's head perked up. Was that--? Yes, he _did_ hear it! It was tiny, but it was there.

He slid over to Benjamin and whispered to him, "Ben! Ben! Don't you hear that? It's a hum! A _Decepticon Effort_ hum! Sam's not a human!"

"Max," Benjamin growled sternly, waving the yellow-head away from him. "There's a TV store right across the street, that's all you're hearing." To the party in general, "Alright, Jess and Sam can go with Cliffjumper and sweep the eastern half of the town while Hound, Max, and I sweep the western half. You contact us _immediately _if you find _any_ trace of the caravan."

"What--?" Max asked.

"I'm keeping an eye on you to make sure you actually do your part instead of chasing after ghosts, and gut feelings" Benjamin told Max as he got into Hound. "Come on, we don't have time on our side."

Max wanted to argue his partnership with Benjamin, wanting to keep an eye on Sam, and he also wanted to argue the point of not having time as an ally. He was starting to see the future so technically, they _did_ have time on their side. But he doubted that anyone would listen to such ridiculous claims as seeing the future and doubted that anyone would listen. On top of that, Benjamin was using the Don't-Make-Me-Use-My-Sword tone, so there _was_ no room for argument. Reluctantly, he climbed into Hound's passenger seat and awaited a long day of wasted time.

- - - -

It was so close, and yet, so far away! If only he and his troops could get this city, London, then they would be proving themselves to be even _better_ than the original Nazis! But, alas, the British were going to sacrifice every man, woman, and child before they allowed the Neo-Nazis and Decepticons to obtain the city.

"General Mash!" a human said, saluting the Decepticon.

"What is it, Grimm?" Mash asked the Lieutenant.

"Our supplies are running low and moral is falling. At this rate we will be defeated in two weeks."

Mash reconsidered plans. He didn't _have_ to seize London first; he had a list of other cities to capture. Let's see, Paris? Nope, got it; it was always the first gone anyway. Maybe one of the smaller countries, like Ireland, or Scotland? No, too small. Perhaps…

"Then we shall turn our sights to Moscow—"he began.

"No!" Grimm exclaimed. He caught himself and went on in a calmer tone, "Perhaps it would be wisest to cut off all of London's supply lines and the towns about it?"

"We already took all the towns we could around the city and the only supply lines left are those flown in by the large Autobot jets," Mash informed. "We will be sore pressed to find another target other than Moscow. But…We can finally find a _proper_ use for you humans," he went on. "You are small and nearly undetectable in such conditions. It would be child's play to send a small, stealth force into the city to plant strategic bombs to punch a hole through the UN and Autobot forces.

"Collect five men to go with you. I will have the targets and explosives ready fro you with in five hours, so you'll be ready to leave by dawn."

Grimm saluted, turned, and trotted off. Mash smirked and shook his black and yellow metal head. He just _loved_ using human pawns.


	13. Taken

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 13: Taken**

"You sure this is the place, Sam?" Jess asked.

"Sure, sure," Sam said, nodding. "I know this place like the back of my hand! Guy down the street's got some sweet, south-of-the-border energy drinks to try out if you need a pick-me-up—"

"_Well, according to the security footage from the corner gas station,"_ Jack said, his voice drifting from Hound's radio. _"The caravan turned down this street, but the bank on the other end of the street didn't see it come out. The alleys are all too narrow for the big rigs of the caravan to go through, and all the buildings are either boarded up or too run down and small to hide the Breaker Labs caravan. So this warehouse is the only logical place for them to be hiding. Unless, of course, they warped out of here or something…"_

"Guess you're right," Benjamin agreed, looking up and down the small street as the sun set tinged it golden yellow. "Sam, are you _sure_ that the warehouse isn't already owned by someone?"

"Yes sir, hey, I grew up around here!" Sam exclaimed with a laugh.

"Accent says other wise, creep," Max mumbled.

The party stood in an alley across the street of a massive clean tin garage that had been constructed there when the previous building had burned down. It was the only place available for the Breaker Lab caravan to hide. Max had made a crack that action _always _went down in a big metal place, but everyone had told him to shut up. Benjamin could only pray that the caravan had set up shop in the warehouse or at least a clue; they had wasted enough time as it was chasing ghosts, they _needed_ to catch at least a _part_ of Breaker Laboratories _somehow_.

"Let's wait a little longer," Benjamin suggested, "That way they can't see us coming if they're in there."

"Good idea," Sam agreed, "What's the plan, boss?"

"Kiss ass," Max hissed under his breath.

A large red metal finger tapped Max on the shoulder, making the small yellow-haired Effort look up at Cliffjumper's own grey and red face. Cliffjumper glanced at the rest of the party, now listening to Benjamin, and nodded to the other end of the alley. Nodding in agreement, Max followed the Autobot to the quieter, private corner.

"I notice that you haven't taken your eyes off of Sam since you landed," Cliffjumper told Max quietly. "You have a bad feeling about him, too?"

"Bad feeling?" Max asked with a snort, "I _know_ he's bad news…"

Max told Cliffjumper about his past hot conversations with Sam.

"…So I don't know what Sam is up to, but I defiantly know that it's nothing good," Max finished. "The thing is that no one believes me because I'm just the skater boy idiot! So I need to either catch Sam red-handed doing something bad or get someone to back me up."

"I can help you with both, kiddo," Cliffjumper said, flashing Max the thumb's up sign and winking. "I've always had a knack for picking out back-stabbing slaggers."

"Sweet," Max whispered, his happy smile belaying the relief sweeping inside of him.

_Oh, thank Primus,_ he thought. _Things should be better now._

But if that was true, then why was the knot only growing in his stomach?

- - - -

Twenty minutes later, the sun had completely set and the last of the red light was draining from the sky as the party surrounded the building. Cliffjumper and Hound took the south east and south west corners to cover the south side; the main entrance and exit of the warehouse. Benjamin teamed with Sam and Max teamed with Jess. Each team of youth snuck into the warehouse, Benjamin and Sam through a window and Jess and Max through a side door. Benjamin was armed with a sword, Jess with Pointblank, and Max with Grind. Sam went in bare-handed, but Benjamin brought him along anyway.

_And people call __me__ worthless, _Max thought hotly, _Either that, or he's pulling the old mistake of bringing a human into a Transformer battlefield._

Entering the warehouse, Max's heart hitched up when he saw in the dark building space the large shapes of several parked vans, semis, and cars. He tapped Jess in the arm and pointed and she nodded. Jess looked up and saw Benjamin and Sam crossing over a cat walk over head, having got there by a spiral staircase beside their entrance window. Benjamin looked down on a part of the floor Max and Jess couldn't see, then held up all his fingers and pointed.

There were five people awake where he had pointed. Jess nodded and began to sneak forward, pressing up against the vehicles as she made her way to the group of people Benjamin had indicated. Max, meanwhile, stayed where he was, staring up at Sam. Something in Max was itching in warning, hissing that something was wrong and he needed to do something about it. Jess noticed him lagging behind.

"Max, come on," Jess whispered.

Max didn't like how Benjamin was all alone on that high cat walk beside him self… with his back turned to Sam…

"Max? Hello? Earth to the stupid blonde?" Jess hissed.

His back turned… high up… Then Max realized what would happen with a gasp, literally seeing it in his mind's eye.

Throwing Grind onto its wheels, he jumped on and kicked off. Jess held back a shout of surprise as Max sped off. He jumped up, wall-riding on the side of a semi trailer close to the wall before transferring to the wall and from there, transferring onto a spiral staircase. He grinded up the staircase's rail before jumping up and onto the catwalk rail, sliding on the metal side. He saw Sam's hands rising up behind Benjamin, who appeared to be noticing something going on below them. Sam reached out, his elbows about to straighten as his palms came dangerously close to Benjamin's back—

Leaping from Grind, Max tackled Sam, knocking him away from Benjamin. Benjamin spun around, his eyes widening in shock as Sam and Max collided with the catwalk's narrow floor. The two boys fell to the floor with a rudely loud clatter of metal and thumping as their bodies hit the metal.

"Max!" Benjamin hissed, darkening the night time silence with the anger in his voice. "What is the matter with you?? I gave orders to keep silent!"

"He was going to push you over the edge!" Max exclaimed, sitting up and pointing accusingly at Sam.

"Liar!" Sam snarled, "Why would I knock Benny-boy over to his death?"

"Max, I know you don't like Sam, but really," Benjamin snapped, "Jeopardizing an operation for your personal qualms and petty accusations—"

But Max wasn't listening; in his mind's eye, he could see the Breaker Labs men waking up in their vehicles and looking up at them as they moved to their driver's seats and reached for the ignition keys. One of the guards had spotted them and was aiming up at them.

"The Breaker Labs guys!" Max exclaimed, interrupting Benjamin as he leaped to his feet.

He grabbed Benjamin and forced him to duck as gun shots rang out, pinging off the roof over head when they flew right over their heads.

"They're going to get away!"

Seizing Grind, he vaulted over the cat walk railing as, sure enough, Breaker Laboratory men woke up in their vehicles and from their numerous sleeping points, looking up at the boys on the cat walk. They moved to their vehicle's driver seats and reached for the ignition keys as Max slipped Grind under his feet. Behind him, Sam and Benjamin laid on the cat walk as guards continued shooting at them.

Max bounced on top of a semi trailer's roof, only to slip and fall down hard on his back. He grabbed the edge of the trailer with one hand while the other grabbed Grind before it could roll away.

"Max--!" Benjamin exclaimed, flustered, he seized his walkie talkie from his belt. "Hound, Cliffjumper," he announced into the communicator, sprinting from the spiral stair case back down to the ground floor, "Hold the doors; Breaker Lab guys are trying to escape!"

Jess, mean while, boldly ran to stand right in front and center of the main doors and drew Pointblank, aiming it at the vehicles as in quick order, one right after the other, Breaker Laboratory drivers started up their vehicles. The vehicle's headlights blinded Jess as they came on, but she stood firm with Pointblank held in both hands and her feet planted apart.

"_Freeze_ your _psychotic asses_ in the name of _justice_ before I blow your _frigging_ brains out!" Jess bellowed, using a worse word in place of "frigging".

In response, guards peeked out of the passenger side of the Breaker Lab vehicles and aimed guns at her.

"Oh, slag," Jess muttered.

The guards opened fire. Benjamin came from the side, taking Jess out of the line of fire in a head-on tackle. As he and Jess landed in a safe zone out of fire, someone activate an automatic door opener and the doors slide aside. The vehicles charged forward, allowing semis equipped with cow pusher plows to lead the way, knocking Hound and Cliffjumper out of the way as the caravan charged out of its hiding place. The two Autobots got back up.

Hound stood, preparing to chase after them. Sam, from the cat walk, gritted his teeth as if praying for something. Suddenly, something clanged loudly in Hound and he doubled over, coughing up oil as a leak sprung up violently from his interior. Sam punched the air then aimed his palms at Cliffjumper while his back was turned and a red orb of energy flew from his palm to the Autobot, knocking him back down with a cry of pain. No one else saw the act of betrayal.

"Woha!" Max exclaimed, gripping the edge of the trailer he was on when it sped out of the warehouse. He tucked Grind underneath himself so that he could grip the trailer with both hands.

He heard metal crash together momentarily as Max's semi clipped Hound in the thigh, knocking the green Autobot aside. He thought he heard a TV hum and a crackle of energy behind him, but couldn't look behind him.

Wind rushed past Max moments later as the semi driver honked his truck's horn to show his comrades that he was safely out of the warehouse and leading the caravan out of town over the speed limit. Max flinched at the volume of the truck's horn blasting in his ear and shivered in the blasting cold night air. His fingers quickly grew numb maintaining a grip on the trailer while his stomach began to ache as it pinned Grind beneath him.

In his mind's eye, he saw Benjamin sitting up and actually _heard_ Benjamin think that he thought he had been hit. Then he saw Benjamin turn and look at his leg and saw it riddled with dark red holes that were leaking red liquid. This was the first time he had ever been shot. He saw and felt Benjamin's confusion at the concept of being shot before Benjamin collapsed into a questioning Jess' arms, unconscious.

_How the hell--?_ Max mutely wondered.

Suddenly, the semi slowed quickly, making Max cry out as his numbed grip slipped and he fell forward, falling into the wires and cords that connected the semi truck with its trailer. He was soon entangled in the cords and struggled to escape them even as the semi stopped. Looking around, he saw that the caravan had come to what appeared to be an abandoned air strip; an old, failed air port, perhaps. He froze when he heard the slamming of doors as people exited their vehicles and the growing sound of voices.

"Everyone here? Did we leave anyone?"

"I'm here!"

"So am I and my team."

"We're all here and A-okay."

"Hey, something's behind my truck!"

Max began to kick and struggle more violently as people surrounded the truck. Strong, rough hands seized him and pulled him from the cords and cables, hauling him out into the open and forcing him to his knees. He could tell that people were surrounding him, but the vehicles' headlights were blinding him and he was cold and weak from his unwanted ride. Squinting against the blinding lights, he looked up and could make out the shapes of a cargo plane behind the crowd. Under the growl of still-active engines, he could hear surprised mutters of the Breaker Laboratory employees.

_Oh god,_ he thought, _I'm caught, I'm caught, my communicator—_

He reached for his belt-clipped walkie talkie, but a fist swiftly connected with his cheek, knocking him onto his back end even as some one seized his belt roughly and took away the walkie talkie.

"Hey, boss," someone called out, "The stupid one hitched a ride on one of the trucks!"

_I'm not stupid,_ Max wanted to object, but his head was ringing from the punch.

"Max?"

Max's head snapped up. Standing over him was none other than Dr. Moriguchi. Age 56, his black hair, tied in a small pony tail was streaked with grey, matching the dark grey stubble on his square chin. With his fit body, he appeared to have been an attractive man in his youth. A scar marred his right cheek. Now his brown eyes sparked as they stared down at Max, flickering between astonishment as Max's presence or disgust in this, knowing that he had helped create the boy.

"You," Max growled, narrowing his eyes in distrust, "The traitor."

Dr. Moriguchi smirked and chuckled quietly, belaying the rage that flared up in his eyes. Bending over, he picked up Grind from where it had been left on the ground and flipped it over in his hands, examining it. Max's defiance turned to fear as he saw Grind being handled thus.

"You know, I remember giving you this when you were five years old at Christmas time," Dr. Moriguchi said gently, nostalgia filling his voice. "Heh, I can't even remember what the graphic on the underside was any more. God, you were _so_ happy. Bumblebee followed you all over the place making sure that you wouldn't get hurt learning to skateboard."

He flipped Grind up so that his hands gripped one end. He looked at the skateboard for another moment, then looked down at Max, a look akin to cruel amusement crossing his features. Max gasped when his inner vision was crossed by another warning; seeing him crumble back while splinters and a couple wheels flew up with blood into the air.

"You know," Dr. Moriguchi said, "It's _pathetic_ how you had so much support growing up; maybe you would have had a little more _intelligence_ if everyone hadn't been babying you."

Then he swung Grind upside Max's head, shattering the aged wood and making Max crumble to the ground, unconscious, as bits of wood and a couple wheels, as well as some of his own blood, rained down on the grass around him.

- - - -

_**Master no let Juggernaut find red face pain makers? What Juggernaut do wrong? Master say that we have what we want and no need Juggernaut for now. Just guard yellow head. Who is yellow head? Yellow head smell funny. Masters say Juggernaut no hurt yellow head. Why not hurt yellow head? Yellow head friend? Yellow head foe? Juggernaut not know. Juggernaut wonder why Masters put yellow head in same dark box as Juggernaut. Juggernaut wonder if yellow head wake up if Juggernaut pull yellow head arm…**_

- - - -

Benjamin cried out in pain when his right arm began to bite in pain, as if being pulled. It pulled him back to the waking world where he found himself staring up at a circle of familiar faces: Hound, Cliffjumper, Jess, and Sam. Hound had black oil stains running down his chin and he frequently turned to spit it out. Cliffjumper was smoking slightly. Jess was wrapping Benjamin's leg up in bandaging, but judging by the bloody stains, he needed to get to a real doctor fast. Looking around, he saw that they were in the warehouse still, but it was empty and the night was deep around them.

_Max-Max-Max_—was what kept repeating itself senselessly in his head.

"W-where-what--?" he panted, looking around.

"Max blew our operation by playing a bit of _tackle football_ with Sam and let the caravan get away," Jess answered. "Last we saw, the idiot was joy riding a semi out of town. That _stupid head_…"

Jess dissolved into a stream of cussing as she stomped away, kicking at the concrete floor and even shooting it in frustration. Sam helped Benjamin sit up and took up Jess' job of bandaging up his leg.

"Don't worry, Benny," Sam promised, "We can track the whacky yellow head Maxi boy down with his walkie talkie!"

"_No we can't,"_ Jack announced through Cliffjumper's radio, making the red Autobot jerk in surprise. _"Someone broke his phone; we're not gonna find him that way."_

"Hey, get out of my radio!" Cliffjumper exclaimed.

"_Told you these waves are pathetically easy to hack."_

"Oh, jeez," Sam said sadly, "Maybe Max went totally AWOL and broke his phone on purpose?"

"No, Max wouldn't do that…" Benjamin muttered. Why did he sense this feeling of ominous energy?

"You think?" Sam asked. "Come on, Benjamin, he's been acting totally weird, and I don't need to know him for as long as I have to know that!"

Benjamin looked at Sam oddly then shook his head as he got to his feet. A sudden pain struck his head, as if a Transformer had punched him, and he swayed on his feet before his leg gave out from under him. Hound quickly put his hand behind Benjamin to steady him and keep him up.

"What ever the reason for Max's phone being broken and his actions, we can not abandon him," Benjamin stated. "We have to find him. Jack; do a scan through all the most recent accessible security footage and see if we can follow the caravan through that."

"_Scanning…"_

"Hound, what happened to you?"

"I—"Hound coughed and turned his head, spitting out some more oil, "I sprung a major leak during the caravan's escape. I'll be fine, but I better walk around unless I want to tear my engine up."

While they waited, Sam casually strode out of the warehouse and pretended to look up and down the street, as if seeking physical clues for the lost caravan. Making sure no one was watching him Sam pulled a phone from his pocket and pressed one of the quick dial buttons.

"_Gadgetmaker here,"_ the person on the other end greeted dully.

"Hey, Swindle, it's me, Sam…" He explained the situation with Max's disappearance. "…so I need a little _pointer_ in the correct direction."

"_Ah, I see,"_ Gadgetmaker-alias-Swindle snickered. _"Give me a moment; I have __just__ the thing. You know, these humans are __geniuses__ when it comes to creating false footage with special effects. A quick video will do it…"_

Swindle hung up and Sam slipped the phone back into his pocket. It was almost eerie how quiet the town was at this time of night. There were no sirens, no traffic, and even the nocturnal creatures were quiet, as if not wishing to take up their day-time partners. It made Sam jittery: He loved noise, the more chaotic and louder the better. Screams, twisting metal, gun shots, rock music, any thing and everything loud he loved. He briefly considered that maybe the reason why he was being so devious was because he wanted to make people scream with his own devices. He shook his head and waved this idea away; he was devious because it was in his blood.

A cry from inside made Sam turn around and sprint into the warehouse, as if truly concerned for what had happened instead of being merely curious.

"What is it? What did I miss?" he asked, running into the warehouse.

"They had a spacecraft waiting!" Jess snarled, "They drove onto the spacecraft and scrammed that way!"

_Wow, good video faking, Swindle,_ Sam thought.

Aloud, he asked, "So, what now?"

"_I was able to pick up their direction of hyper jumping,"_ Jack explained, _"According to the calculations, they're heading for Cybertron, and Skyfire and MJ are running troops around in Europe. Ugh, we just can't get a break, can we?"_

"So, now what?" Hound asked. "We have no spacecraft available that can go to Cybertron."

"First, a hospital," Benjamin said. "I am shot and you, Hound, need a professional repair job. As for the space craft, we'll see what we can whisk up at the _Ark_."

"If I may," Sam said with his now-familiar grin, "I just might have what we're looking for."


	14. Time Slot

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Warning****: The beginning of this chapter is a bit brutal and gross. You have been warned.**

**Chapter 14: Time Slot**

Max opened his eyes reluctantly. His head ached horrendously, his limbs were stiff, and what the hell had happened to him? Had he finally managed to sneak into that bar every teenager in Transport City talked about? Oh, Primus, _tell_ him that he managed to get one of the pretty girls…

A waft of disgusting-smelling air crossed Max's face, making him cough against the stench. He groaned in pain as the stench brought back all the memories; Transport City sank, Sam, the caravan, warehouse, being kidnapped by Moriguchi, Grind being smashed on his head—

Gasping in emotional pain now, Max sat up and opened his eyes quickly, as if he would be in his room back in the now-sunken Global Autobot Headquarters and Grind would be stretched across the foot of his bed, as usual. But he did not find himself in a bed room, but in a dark room just barely lit enough to see the corners. Grind was near by, but half of it was shattered and blood speckled it.

Staring in horror at his destroyed skateboard, Max slowly reached a hand up to touch the aching spot on his head. It was bandaged, but damp.

"Grind…" he whispered.

Grind, is favorite material thing ever since he was five; his partner in crime, his vehicle of trickery and his ticket to many an awesome high-rise adventure. Now it was just… gone… smashed against his own head. Max's hand went from his head to tug on his harness, the same thing that had held Grind, as tears stung his sky blue eyes. Grind was irreplaceable…

"**Yellow head red face?"**

The voice was deep, growling, and just had that exact tone to make Max instantly put in the same category of _The Exorcist_ and other horror movies. He scrambled back with a scream, even as his cursedly curious eyes snapped around to look at the source of the growl.

The figure was approximately eight feet tall and appeared to have been human at one time. But something had happened to him; now his entire body was muscled, as if pumped up on excess steroids, or like some nightmarish comic book villain. His fingers were short and thick, almost as if they had only one joint, but it looked like one joint was all this character needed to crush Max's scrawny neck. The creature wore pants, at least; large dark grey canvas pants held up by a black belt that appeared to be, literally, apart of the man. His feet were exposed under the torn pant bottoms; one foot was a grey metal boot; the other's large toe, heel, and section of the calf was metal.

All over the exposed upper body, skin melted into metal and metal melted into skin, exposing metal cable muscles beneath skin in some places, other times metal scales just popped out randomly, cutting into the flesh around it. An occasional vein could be seen pulsating just below the clammy skin or amidst the exposed cable muscles. The vein could either be a dark red, sweating organic vein, shaking as blood ran through it, and other times it would be a clear plastic tube that glowed from with in as sick golden yellow energon ran through it.

But what was the worst was the head; He looked like he had a metal face mask at first, but then it would peel away with the slight screech of metal and reveal a wet, gooey metal maw with in lined with row after row of black metal teeth like shark's, plunging down into a black hole of a throat. Above the mouth, there was no nose; not even a hump suggesting one. The left eye was human, but it bulged out too far, exposing whites all around the large black pupil. The right eye was mechanical in nature; a blue orb that continuously sweated some vinegar-smelling substance as the ping pong ball-sized orb moved around and around on its own. The orb was held in place by a crude segment of metal connected to the right side of the face, flaring out cables to cover where the ear should have been before plunging into the back of the skull. The human left half of the head was bald, speckled only with a thin, wiry-looking colorless hair that stuck straight up, as if holding a static charge.

Max cried out in fear, disgust and surprise as he scrambled back and away from the monster. The monster's blue orb eye suddenly snapped around to face Max directly. A white circle quivered in the center of the orb as it turned orange then red, and the monster rose. It seized Max's ankle in a large hand and hauled him clear off the ground, dangling the terrified boy upside down over his head.

"**Is yellow head red face?"** the monster asked more loudly, some how speaking through his horrific excuse of a mouth. **"Yellow head answer!"**

To show how much he wanted Max to speak, the monster swatted Max against the wall. The wind was knocked from Max and he wailed in fear and pain, but once more he was slammed against the wall, twice, thrice, and a forth time. By the time the monster pulled him back for the fifth time, Max's nose was broken and was dripping blood on the floor. He could feel his ribs aching and several were cracked. One of his wrists had been completely smashed into his arm from trying to brace himself against the wall. Fear ran rampant in Max, making him ask dozens of incoherent questions without thinking of an answer.

"Well? What do you think, Max?"

Max looked up, whipping away some blood that had gotten into his eye, and saw Dr. Moriguchi standing in the corner of the room, his ankles and arms crossed casually. He was dressed in a completely white suit; a style of irony for those who associate white with purity.

"Go on, answer Juggernaut," Dr. Moriguchi stated. "Are you a red face, an Autobot? Oh, and before you answer that, I will have you know that Juggernaut's been trained to just _hate_ 'red faces'."

Max looked up at Juggernaut and could see Dr. Moriguchi's point.

"He will rip you limb from limb if you answer incorrectly," Moriguchi purred. "Juggernaut, Effort X1, may be a _beast_ of an Effort, being a mere prototype, but he was the first ever to survive past childhood, even before the Decepticon Efforts. The _original _Breaker Labs scientists wanted to put the brute out of his misery, but why do that? He doesn't hurt, and it's easy to please him. I decided to fake his death and have been raising him to be my little _pet_. He's a hideous bastard, but he gets the job done and I'm rather proud of him."

Unbelievably, he reached up and petted Juggernaut's repulsive head. Juggernaut leaned his head into the hand and emitted a gurgling, happy purr.

"Why?" Max asked, coughing on some blood. "Why are you _doing _this? The Efforts, the war, the kidnapping, everything?"

"Because, my dear little Max," Moriguchi said, turning his attention back to Max, "I like knowledge, but what I like even more than that is the pursuit of it. Where others see a waste of time and money, I see purpose and secrets. Studying the mating patterns of random animals gives one insight as to those animals' personalities. Running a creature until they are dead of exhaustion show how long they and a human can go. Mixing different species' blood reveals how accepting a body is of other creatures' substances.

"I _love _studying, and, with the help a group of _idiots _who truly believe that they are going to get something from this, I am about to begin the largest experiment in the history of the universe: What a universe does when all major populations are _annihilated_. What will happen? Will the humans and Transformers grow up in a civilization so closely woven that one can not tell that they were, at one time, separate species? Will one species become a higher entity while the other retreats into animalistic habits? I can't wait! It's so exciting!"

If Max weren't so scared or in so much pain, he would have rolled his eyes at Moriguchi's excitement. Moriguchi chuckled and patter Juggernaut's arm.

"Now, Max-y, lad, you are being given the chance to _see _this experiment be carried out. You just have to answer Juggernaut correctly. Answer wrongly, and, well," Moriguchi shrugged as Juggernaut slammed Max into the wall again. "I won't have to feed him to night."

_I can't last,_ Max thought as his head spun. Inside, he had another vision; of his blood coloring this room if he said yes. He was too weak and didn't dare turn to see what the future would look like if he said no. He only knew that if he said "yes", he would suffer.

_I'm sorry, guys,_ he thought as tears of shame filled his eyes. He closed his eyes, hoping that he could hide the tears. _I'm so sorry, but I swear that I'll make it up to you…_

"No," Max said weakly, his quiet voice clearly audible in the quiet room. "Yellow hair no red face."

Primus, what had he just done to himself? He felt as he had just uttered the words to a curse fit to doom him and all he loved.

The magic words spoken, Juggernaut dropped Max and sat down, just as Max had woken up seeing him. Max writhed onto his side and pushed himself into a partial sitting position. He heard foot steps approach and looked up to see Moriguchi standing over him.

"Good boy, Maxey, lad," Moriguchi cooed.

Then he swung his leg up and slammed its heel into Max's head. He felt the bone crack before he surrendered into a peaceful black oblivion.

- - - -

"Bad news, Optimus; things may take longer than expected."

"What do you mean, Mirage?"

"Apparently, there are councilmen who like you and your band, and there are those who don't. Your case will take longer than expected."

"How much longer?"

"A… month…"

"A month!? What the slag do those idiots thing they're doing? We gotta war to win here!!"

"Easy, Ironhide, we'll just have to be patient and hope for a favorable hearing."

"That's it, Optimus? We just _wait_?"

"Yes, Ratchet; we wait."

- - - -

"Skynet to Soundwave: No potential Cassetticons detected in immediate area."

"Soundwave to Skynet: Continue search until Effort 1067, designation Alias, is found and brought to Megatron."

"Time slot for actions?"

"…One Earth month. Upon time slot expiration, return to Earth for Effort X1 and Effort 25 will be necessary."

- - - -

"Alright, guys, so how long do I have to keep fixing booboos before this place is secure?"

"It's not that simple, Anne—"

"Hold up! Josh, is that… is that a _tattoo_ on your arm??"

"Autobot insignia? Yeap."

"_Who the slag got you a tattoo! I don't have time to disinfect tattoos--!"_

"Sunstreaker."

"Sunstreaker…."

"Watch it, auto-_cat_; I got more than enough fire power to take all of your nine lives."

"As you were saying, Anne?"

"Oh, right, Becky. Wheeljack; how much longer are we going to be here?"

"Until the war is over."

"Aw man…"

"On the plus side, the town is second priority compared to London, so if the fighting it still raging around London in a month or so, we can join the main forces in London."

"Great, and until then… Josh, get over here, you have something on your arm that I want to remove…"

- - - -

"Well, _general,_ how much more time do we have to waste on this _pathetic_ excuse of a town?"

Cha-chick! **"Watch it, Starscream, or I'll melt you down into scrap metal and turn you into a giant pile of nuts and bolts!"**

"Just answer the question, Blitzwing."

Ch-chick! "My apologies for Hot Head. The answer is 'one month'; after that, if we can no longer make progress, we shall go to another town. This place is dried up of potential recruits, anyway. Where are Thundercracker and Skywarp?"

"Patrolling, blowing up hidden UN forces, stealing Energon, tapping femmes; the usual."

"Tell them to keep apart from one another; they have a rather nasty partnership of theirs…"

"Yeah, yeah; one mech gets knocked out and the other goes down with him. It's annoying."

"Remember, Starscream; one month. Then we move."

- - - -

"What do you mean there are complications in the spaceship!?"

"I am sorry, Lord Megatron, sir! But certain parts turned out to be contaminated by unworthy compounds and would horrendously tear up the ship if installed. We just can not go on with such parts!"

Sigh. "Very well." Beep! "Megatron to Ferrofluid and Shockwave; come in."

"_You called, sir?"_

"_What is it, My Lord?"_

"There have been complications with the ship. Ferrofluid; come down here, get a list of needed replacement parts, then go out with Shadowleap and Cartwheel to _liberate them_ from where ever they may be. Some of those _parts _you got for us were total trash, and those little _brats _need some experience in the crime field. You will have any Decepticon at your disposal while on your mission."

"_Yes, sir."_

"Shockwave; how will this affect my plans?"

"_I see the list of needed parts being loaded into the data base and I can estimate that the Efforts will need approximately two weeks to obtain the parts and we will need two weeks to properly install and test them._"

"Can we shorten it into three weeks?"

"_Yes, sir; we can bypass several repetitive procedures to shorten the install-and-test part time into one week."_

"Good. That gives us a month to fix the problems. Ferrofluid; transform and go out with your new partners in crime by sun down."

"_Yes, sir."_

- - - -

"A month delay?"

"_Yes, Mextron. This will be my last transmission to you before Cartwheel, Shadowleap, and I must go take the parts."_

"Thank you for reporting this, Ferrofluid. This will give me time to properly train and discipline our new recruits. But if at any time in your mission things become too much or too dangerous, I want you to back off and drop it _immediately. _The little ones are too young to for such activities: Protect them with your life."

"_Understood, sir. As for the troop training: Be careful to make sure they know that they're working for Megatron; you know how he hates it when you take his mechs."_

"I know, Ferrofluid. Thank you, again. Transmission, end."

Blip!

"You _really_ think you can discipline these vagabonds, Mextron?"

"I'm a part of Megatron, aren't I, Solarflare? It shouldn't be _too_ tough. Besides: We have an entire month to work with. Let's see what we can do with that…"

- - - -

Alias fidgeted in her class room seat, completely oblivious to the lesson going on around her. She could just access the information later, but right now, she was struggling to contact all the other data bases without going into a trance.

_Search item…_ she entered in some specific data. _Come on, come on, how long until they come. I know they're here, but how long until they find me?_

_**Blip: Time until discovery: one month, two days, six hours, four minutes, and five seconds.**_

- - - -

_**Juggernaut know now that Juggernaut do good thing. Master say yellow head not red face pain maker. Yellow head Juggernaut's new friend. Friend? Master say friend is like good food and Master: Friend good. Yellow head weak, Juggernaut say, yellow head too weak to be friend. Master say he will fix yellow head, make yellow head stronger. Juggernaut happy. Juggernaut will have new friend to help Juggernaut kill red face pain makers.**_

- - - -

Sunlight poured into the garage behind the main tin-walled hangar on the mountain. Gadgetmaker led the way into the garage, kicking aside rusty, dirty parts as he went and made his way to a large, canvas-covered object in the center of the garage. Behind him, a confident Sam led Benjamin and Jess into the garage. Benjamin's shot-up leg had been splinted and bandaged and he was moving around on crutches. Benjamin and Jess looked around curiously while behind them, Cliffjumper and Hound both peeked into the garage. Hound was cleaned up, thankfully, and his leak had been fixed.

"Alright," Gadgetmaker said. "So your buddy, Max, got kidnapped by Breaker Lab agents and apparently blasted off to Cybertron?"

"Yes," Benjamin agreed.

"And because of the war locking down all the trans-warp gates from here to Cybertron, and all your possible intergalactic buses are busy elsewhere, you can't follow 'em unless you have your own spacecraft, correct?"

"Yes; plus. We need to keep discrete about coming to Cybertron, lest Breaker Labs sees us and hides again. On top of that, our fathers are, er, _detained _on Cybertron and our appearance might give officials the wrong idea."

"Good idea. Whelp, Sam brought you to just the mech to get you to Cybertron."

Thus speaking, Gadgetmaker seized the canvas and pulled it from its item. Beneath it a space cruiser sat. Small, round-cornered, and dusty with age, the black and yellow paint was badly scuffed in many places, scarred with laser burns, and it sat crooked on twisted leg struts. It was the size of a school bus and as beaten up as one. Walking over to it, Benjamin peeked in through the open door of the craft and grimaced at all the wires that were hanging out of the walls.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a fixer upper," Gadgetmaker said, leaning against the craft as he examined the tips of his fingers. "But it can still get you to Cybertron and back in a jiffy with some repairs. Now, normally, I would charge you about, oh, $7,000, American, but considering the unusual circumstances, I'll give it to you on loan. What do you say?"

"How long could the repairs take?" Benjamin asked.

"_With all that stuff,"_ Jack broke in, speaking from Gadgetmaker's chest and making him jump in surprise, _"It looks like three years, but it's just some aging stuff; easy peas-y to fix. I'd say about a month, tops."_

"Hey!" Gadgetmaker yelped, "That's a private frequency! Get off of it!"

"_Hey, that's interesting,"_ Jack went on. _"The frequency handbook says that this frequency is an old De—"_

Gadgetmaker turned and quickly whacked at his chest, dislodging the radio unit in him and reverting it to silence.

"A month," Benjamin whispered. "A whole month in which Breaker Laboratories can get away doing with what ever they wanted with Max…"

He jumped when Pointblank was set down hard on an empty water boiler, followed by the belt and holster. Jess shoved past Benjamin, picking up parts in her arms and moving it to the side as she spoke.

"Well," she said. "That month isn't going to get any shorter just standing there and worrying about it! Come on and let's get this junk out of the way. Sam, Mr. Gadgetmaker, can you look over the ship and see what parts we need?"

"Sure thing, gal," Sam said, flashing the thumbs up sign and a cheeky wink.

"Well, let's work from the inside out, Sam," Gadgetmaker said, leading the way inside the broken down craft. Behind them, Cliffjumper and Hound grabbed the larger items and began moving junk outside.

"Benjamin," Cliffjumper hissed, drawing the boy to him. "Ben, I gotta talk to you."

Benjamin set down the trash he was carrying and turned to the red 'bot.

"What, Cliffjumper?" he asked.

"Before the raid, and before Max got taken," Cliffjumper said. "He told me this stuff about Sam, and frankly, I agree with him about Sam being a suspicious character at best, and that Gadgetmaker is ringing a bell in my processor—"

"Cliffjumper," Benjamin sighed. "Now is not the time. You think _everyone_ is a traitor."

"But _Max _said that _Sam_ tried _killing _you! Who are you gonna believe, a childhood friend or some kid we picked up yesterday?"

"Cliffjumper; you have to learn how to trust people better."

"Maybe _you_ have to learn _when_ to trust people."

But Benjamin limped away, completely ignoring the Autobot who had earned himself a reputation as a finger-pointing accuser. Cliffjumper looked to Hound for some help, but even Hound looked away. Suddenly, Cliffjumper felt a lot like boy who cried wolf.

In the craft, Gadgetmaker shut the craft door behind him, leaving him and Sam in side a cramped, dirty space.

"Well," Gadgetmaker said. "This assignment was easier than I thought."

"I thought you didn't do official war business?" Sam asked sarcastically, the smile on his face proving otherwise.

"That was before I started remembering who I was: The best black market dealer ever to roll out of the factory."

- - - -

Thus a month passed on Cybertron, Earth, and in between. The war continued on, each party went on to their own goals, and time passed. They all had several adventures, from Ferrofluid and the little Decepticon Efforts' thievery, to suspicious close calls with Benjamin's and Sam's team, and many a war fight for Wheeljack's crew in Europe. But such tales, alas, are meant for another day.

Benjamin's group fixed up the space cruiser while Cliffjumper kept a constant optic on Sam. He actually saved the party from certain doom on more than one occasion, but accidentally, and he never obtained evidence of Sam's or Gadgetmaker's treachery. Benjamin healed from his wounds rather quickly and grew fond of Sam and his respectful nature. He felt guilty at loosing Max, even though he still blamed Max for being kidnapped. After an adventure to Australia, Jess etched the image of a Tasmanian devil onto Pointblank, adopting it as her mascot for its legendary ferocity.

In Europe, Wheeljack taught the kids how to fight better and they helped the UN soldiers with many a side mission, and even worked with secret agents on more than one occasion. Becky and Josh drew closer in their own, friendly rival way, with every mission. In the times Josh and Blitzwing met in the battlefield, they kept to their word of a respectful rival relationship, fighting without pulling punches and yet, failing to make it miserable. Second-in-Command Walter Willium tried to get himself more reputation among the Neo-Nazis above being the pretty boy, but failed.

On Cybertron, the Autobots were kept in prison, going to court hearings and awaiting their fate to be determined as a private, but important political argument went on. Some bold mechs tried breaking them out and one or two even kidnapped them on some occasions, but the Autobots stayed put to avoid strengthening their guilty accusations.

Around Cybertron, Soundwave and Skynet searched for their quarry who cowered under their noses, using her unusual data base-peeking abilities to predict their every move and by pass it. Skynet trained his only Cassetticon thus far in that time, and continued to seek more.

Breaker Laboratories continued with their plans. Moriguchi had the pleasure of crossing out three more people from his list: Grimm when he went on a bomb-planting mission, only to have the bombs go off on him, Effie when she committed suicide, realizing that nothing was as it seemed for Breaker Labs, and Governor Jacques when he attempted to leave the party, only to be assassinated. Now all that was left was twin doctors Rosie and Star, who Moriguchi dotted upon dearly for their marvelous innovations to their private, vile science field. In the mean time, they changed and trained their new Effort, Max.

Mextron's group trained their Decepticon recruits and Ferrofluid made it a sort of game with the young Efforts and himself to steal the items for Megatron's list. True, they had close calls, and were even captured once by a slightly foolish detective who fell for their sweet faces and let them go.

The month seemed to last longer than one would expect, seeming more like a year than a month, but passed it did. Many adventures happened, most of which are not necessary to be told for this tale to be completed, but are reserved for another day. Everyone acted and waited, and in time, their patients was rewarded with further development in their adventures.


	15. Launch

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 15:** **Launch**

Megatron stood on top of the enormous white building marking out the Earth's main Decepticon base. A few months ago, the building had poked like a white tombstone out of the orange sands of the Sahara Desert. But the sand was a constantly shifting sea, and while it was not as quick as its wet counterpart, it was just as stifling and dominating. Even as Megatron stood on the roof, he could feel the wind sweeping the sand onto the roof from the dune that had come to hug the building, making tiny dunes against his feet. With in the next couple weeks the dune would come to cover the building, burying it and making it another hidden artifact with in the desert's belly. His troops would need to find a way of blasting sand from the door, or a sort of tunnel, if they wanted out any more. But if things went according to plan, Megatron's troops would not be here with in the next two weeks.

Metal boots clomped on the roof as a familiar mech approached behind him. Megatron didn't need to turn around; he had heard those boots approach enough times to identify them by tone alone.

"Yes, Shockwave?" he asked.

"The installment and testing is completed, sir," Shockwave responded as he saluted. "The craft is ready."

Megatron smirked triumphantly as he turned to Shockwave.

"Well," he said, "Get the crew ready and have someone inform Mextron's party; we are going to Cybertron."

Shockwave nodded as Megatron strode past him, heading for the edge of the roof. As Shockwave followed his leader, he placed a hand to the side of his head, activating his out-of-battle comm. link.

"Shockwave to Ferrofluid," he stated. "We are lifting off in T-minus fifteen minutes. Do you copy, Ferrofluid?"

The communications link responded, _"Ferrofluid to Shockwave, I copy, Shockwave. Decepticon Efforts Cartwheel, Shadowleap, and myself will be standing by."_

Shockwave lowered his hand from his head as Megatron easily jumped off the side of the building. Both he and Shockwave used their hover abilities to land in the sand in front of the base's main doors softly. From there, Megatron led the way through the massive hangar doors, into his base's huge garage, through the entrance hall, and through the base.

As he went, Decepticons stood to the side and saluted for him. They had already been informed of the plans and knew what their job was: Hold base down on Earth and wipe out the Autobot powers mercilessly under some temporary command or another. When Megatron had dropped off a powerful, long-lasting force on Cybertron and established the war there, he would come back to Earth to wipe out its organic population and bleed the planet dry of resources. It was not so much the resources he wanted as it was the revenge against the disgusting race of maggots that had kept him imprisoned for so long; an imprisonment he was still bitter about, even after these long months.

Finally, Megatron and Shockwave came to the large elevator that would lead to the enormous cavern beneath the base where their ride awaited. As Megatron turned to the doors, he smirked just before the elevator doors slid shut. He was smirking at the idea that the next time he would come to this base, it would be to christen it as an official Decepticon office on this miserable planet.

He and Shockwave did not speak as they took the two minute elevator ride down into the ground. Shockwave was not one for conversation and Megatron saw no point in it. Megatron's excitement, though, rose even higher in his Spark chamber when he felt the elevator slide to an easy stop. The doors slid open with a small hiss, emitting him into the giant cavern.

For once, all the light-deprived mechanics and engineers of the project were not bustling about, making last-minute check ups and re-installing new parts. Now they all stood as quietly as they could on either side of the elevator, making a sort of living hall way to the craft. Their red and red-orange optics glowed like inner demons as they watched Megatron and Shockwave walk apathetically past them. What few mechs who had had their lights on before kept them off, or at least turned them to cast their light behind them or over head, not wishing to insult or anger their Lord by blinding him.

An inclined plane ramp was currently propped on the ground leading up to the craft like a leg that mutually understood its purpose. Beside the ramp stood the on-base Decepticon Efforts; Ferrofluid, Cartwheel and Shadowleap. While Ferrofluid kept his pale bluish lavender and black-accented over coat with a white tee shirt and blue jeans beneath, Shadowleap and Cartwheel had been given proper uniforms: All black, with purple gloves, boots, belt, and a news boy cap and backpack each. Cartwheel wore her cap the right way while Shadowleap went for setting it backwards on his head. They had called the uniforms their "costumes", as if they were apart of some comic book world.

The younger two of the three looked tired after having to have run around the world for the past couple weeks stealing parts, but were ready to do what Megatron said. Their true leader, Mextron, had ordered them to follow Ferrofluid before he left, and Ferrofluid followed Shockwave, who followed Megatron, hence, making them followers of Megatron as well. Another reason why they were ready to do what Megatron said in spite of their desire for rest was that they were both terrified of Megatron when he was angry.

Now Megatron stopped, looking down on the trio. He was still repulsed at himself for accepting _organics_ into his army, Decepticon organics or other wise, but he had seen them proven their worth in battle. He would relish the day the youngest Efforts would gain their own Transformer modes then he could order all the Decepticon Efforts to permanently adopt their robot forms and thus save him an optic sore.

The children straightened when Megatron turned his sights on them. Ferrofluid saluted and the younger two followed suit. Nodding, Megatron turned to the ramp of the craft and led the way up. Shockwave made motion to Ferrofluid and, understanding, Ferrofluid assumed his Transformer form.

Standing at his father's shoulder height, robot Ferrofluid was pale bluish lavender with black accents and a black visor covering his optics. He had the wing-like ear sensory antennae and slightly protruding square chest armor, as well as the square boots, of his father. His hands were slightly monstrous to behold as they were actually long, four-fingered claws sharp enough to shred sheet metal. His overcoat, oddly enough, had followed him into his transfer from organic to flesh. But he further banished his original human image when his over coat shuddered and rose up, splitting apart and reforming into a pair of large, sharp-edged silver dragonfly wings in a dream-like transforming sequence.

Kneeling, Ferrofluid picked up Shadowleap and Cartwheel, placing them on either shoulder before following Shockwave onto the ship. Shadowleap teleported to sit on top of Ferrofluid's head and he put the little boy back on his shoulder.

Inside, the ship's main entrance bay had a crew of thirty mechs lining either side of the wall, all standing to attention with their weapons held at ready in a professional salute in front of them. Megatron looked around, ensuring that all the mechs he had hand-picked were there. They were: To be even a microsecond late for Megatron would spell certain doom to that late-comer.

Nodding once again in satisfaction, Megatron spoke.

"Gentlemen," he announced, "Let's lift off."

The crew put away their weapons and moved to do as they were ordered. Megatron, Shockwave and the Decepticon Efforts quickly made their way through the ship to the piloting room where five pilot mechs controlled the ship there. The piloting room was divided into two levels; a higher and a lower, by control councils and a step between them. Two mechs controlled the councils at the back while three controlled the front counsels right up against the craft's large windshield and a final steering mechanism much like a ship's steering wheel sat in the middle of it all. It was rather cramped, compared to a traditional piloting room, but this craft had been built for war, not comfort.

"Megatron to ground control," Megatron spoke to it seemed like no one in particular, "Are we clear for lift off?"

Everyone looked up as a great crack sounded from the cavern wall in front of them. Through the windshield, they saw an enormous opening slowly separating in the rock, moving aside to reveal a pair of large metal doors. A buzzer sounded out and the metal doors slid aside as well, revealing an enormous, polished-metal tunnel beyond. Megatron openly grinned as lights turned on in the tunnel, revealing that it turned up after about a few hundred yards in.

"_This is ground control to Lord Megatron,"_ a mech called over the intercommunications link. _"You are clear for lift off. My best wishes to you, My Lord."_

"Thank you, ground control," Megatron purred. "Men: Do what you were chosen to do."

The pilot mechs replied with obedient and even enthusiastic, "yes, sirs" before moving on to check on each other. As they ran through the standard procedures, the craft's engines began to hum like a curious creature waking up from a long slumber. Outside, purple and white flames began to glow with in their jets become firm, professional balls of light held with in the jets' grasp. Shadowleap and Cartwheel looked around with wide, excited eyes, clearly excited at what was going on around them. Shadowleap's contour lines began to shiver and shake, signifying that he was on the verge of teleporting everywhere like some caffeinated demon rabbit. Ferrofluid calmed him and reminded him to be still by lifting a claw to wrap around and gently squeeze Shadowleap.

"Engines at a hundred percent power," one pilot said.

"Wings are in perfect alignment," said another.

"Weapons and defense systems on line," the next confirmed.

"Lasers and jets are running hot," the forth mech announced.

"Alright, everyone hold on," the main mech announced, pushing the controls forward.

The ship slid forward as if held by a firm, guiding hand. Into the enormous tunnel it went, slipping by the polished steel tunnels easily. The tunnel curved up and the ship went with it, its engines humming as it, for the first time, began to gain altitude. A white circle of light appeared high overhead in their tunnel, but even as that fact was registered, the jet rocketed out of the tunnel entrance. Below them, the sand of the Sahara Desert blasted around in their wake and everyone's stomachs (or mechanical units representing them) jumped as they sped up and through the sky, leaping into the clouds.

"Making our way to pick up rendezvous one, sir," the main pilot announced, turning the craft around to face north.

He flipped some switches and it seemed like the craft lunged forward before stopping again. Below them, the red and orange desert sands had been replaced with rolling blue-green and green forests and hills, marred only by black places where battle had taken place. A little further north, a small town sat in the arms of the hills lazily. Below them, their first pick up passengers waited.


	16. Time Turns Back

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 16: Times Turns Back**

Josh was on his back on a jeep hood in human form, tossing a baseball he had found back and forth in his hands. Near by, Anne, also in human form, was sitting on a stack of tires as she poured over a car mechanical handbook as part of her self-educating of the Transformer body. Sideswipe lounged against the side of the mall of whose parking lot their camp was set up in. Sideswipe was beside him, manipulating his enormous metal fingers around tiny spray paint cans to deface the mall (the UN soldiers were too sick of his bored antics to tell him to stop). Wheeljack leaned his back against the wall standing up while he fiddled with something, a metal ball of some sort, in his hands. Only Becky seemed like she was keeping watch over them sitting on top of an army truck with two other United Nations soldiers, gun in hand, as they kept an eye on the skies for any more Decepticons.

This was what they had largely spent their days doing for the past week: lounging about and waiting for new orders or Decepticons to come. Only three days remained until half the troops in this town would pack up and go to aide in more important battlefields. It had been determined that Josh and Becky would remain behind as Autobot assistance in this area.

The ball quit traveling between Josh's hands as he closed his eyes and sighed. But when he closed his eyes, the images of battle flashed by before him, and all the possible fates of his friends back in America. Their party had long since been updated as to what had happened to Max and it was Max he worried about most. Was Max filled with wires and suffering all sorts of tortures at the hands of Breaker Laboratories now? Was he even alive? It was scary to think about. Heck, now he could even smell the cleaning chemicals, hear the buzz saw whirring as the scientists prepared to cut Max up, hear the hiss of life support systems as they kept him alive only to see how much he could take—

Wait, that hissing was too low to be life support.

Josh's eyes snapped open as he sat up and looked around. Also hearing the hissing, now becoming a dull hum, the others looked up, setting whatever they were doing aside to stand up and look around. Wheeljack looked around with his newest gizmo in one hand and his tool in the other. Suddenly, his tool slipped, breaking something and flicking it away carelessly. Yipping in surprise while his ear fins flashed, Wheeljack seized the gizmo when it beeped loudly and began to buzz and rattle in his hands.

"Uh, yeah, let's go check that sound out, guys," Wheeljack suggested, clearly more nervous about what was in his hands.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe transformed and paused only to let the Autobot Efforts climb in before chasing after Wheeljack as he bolted out of the parking lot. The UN commander ordered a jeep of men to follow the Autobots with orders to call for back up if the Neo-Nazis were making a move.

They had not far to go before the party stopped short, shocked at what they saw.

From the street they stopped in, they could clearly see the enemy camp on its hill near the town. While they had seen one Decepticon jet after the other showing off flight maneuvers over the camp, what hovered over the camp now was far more impressive and threatening than any Decepticon jet. The Autobot Efforts got out of their rides to get a better look.

It was a spaceship; being big enough to take up a parking space the size of a football stadium and a half, the mammoth-sized creation was that of one's typical inner-space jet: Fat with large wings and pretty much large all over. It was as if someone had taken the SR-71 Blackbird stealth craft and hit it with a growth ray. If the craft's dark grey, purple-tinted paint job and location over the enemy camp was not obvious enough to point out what faction controlled it, than the enormous red Decepticon symbol stamped on either wing and on its sides would make it clear.

"A-a-a Decepticon war ship?" one of the UN soldiers hanging out of the back of the jeep whispered.

To him, Anne turned and screamed, "What does it look like, Sherlock!?"

"Good Primus, Wheeljack," Sideswipe exclaimed. "What are we going to do!? Wheeljack?"

But Wheeljack appeared to be doing some sort of peculiar dance with his gizmo, as it was now buzzing loudly and yanking him about in the air.

"Geaugh, not again!" Wheeljack yelped. "Everyone duck!"

At the last statement, Wheeljack let go of the gizmo, falling hard onto his back end as it flew up into the air on its own accord. The softball-sized ball of wires and metal ran around and around in the air as it emitted a sort of panicked, wild whistling noise. Suddenly, it spat out several wires and dropped down over Anne, wrapping its wires around and under her arms before hauling her off the ground.

"Hey!" she yelped, struggling as the gizmo carried her off in the direction of the ship. "Put me down, damnit!"

Sunstreaker transformed and drew his gun, aiming it at Anne, but Josh acted faster.

"Anne!" Josh exclaimed, running forward.

In a flash, Josh had obtained his Transformer mode and was flying after Anne and her gizmo kidnaper.

"Aw, scrap," Sunstreaker growled, lowering his gun. "I can't hit the thing without getting Anne!"

"What _is _that thing, Wheeljack?" Sideswipe asked.

"It—it was just an attack drone I was making for the humans for when we leave!" Wheeljack exclaimed, "It's got some bugs in it yet."

"Some bug, it's going to the Decepticon camp," Sunstreaker pointed.

"Josh, you always rescue _me_, damnit!" Becky snarled. In a flash, she, too, had gained her robot form and was sprinting after Josh at a remarkably fast pace.

"Slag, now they're _both_ gone," Sunstreaker groaned as his shoulders slumped.

"Well, let's _go_!" Sideswipe exclaimed, gunning his engine and racing after the kids.

- - - -

_Impressive,_ Cold Blitzwing noted.

_Ooh, it's so shiny and pretty! Can I have one of my own? _Random asked. _It reminds me of the ride my best friend in high school got for graduation!_

_You didn't go to high school, _Cold pointed out.

But Hot Head Blitzwing's face was the one that had the voice to yell half way to the top of his lungs over the dull roaring hum of the engines, **"What the slag is that!?"**

"It's a _spaceship,_ imbecile," Starscream sighed, rolling his optics behind Blitzwing and belaying the shock he, too, was feeling inside. Around them, Decepticons were whooping in approval in the camp while human Neo-Nazis pointed and exchanged looks and awed exclamations. Thundercracker and Skywarp were the ones to express Starscream's surprise as they stared up at the massive ship whose shadow they stood in.

"Wow," Thundercracker whistled, "Where did Megs _get_ all that metal?"

"Screw the metal!" Skywarp exclaimed, as the ship lowered it self and dropped its gang plank, "What's its name? I couldn't even _teleport_ around that thing!"

"Its name," Megatron announced, coming down the gang plank, "Is the _Reborn Nemesis_."

"How creative, Megatron," Starscream sneered sarcastically, "Just like our old ship, but with 'reborn' on the end, how unique."

"Quiet, Starscream," Megatron snapped at the Seeker. "If you wish to remain alive, I advise that you don't ruin my mood by opening your mouth. Blitzwing, call your best mechs here immediately. We leave with in the hour."

Ferrofluid came part way down the gang plank, interested in looking at a true war camp. His ear fins twitched and he looked to his left, the north, as did the other Decepticons when they heard a small shout. Coming up the hill towards them was the same strange gizmo that had a struggling Anne in its grip. Even as they watched, Anne cussed loudly and a bright flash came from her. When it faded, a horse-sized red and white robot feline was kicking her paws out of the gizmo's tentacles. She hissed as she finally released herself by whacking the gizmo with her tail, making it spark and beep before shutting down for good. The two clattered to the ground.

Without being ordered to, Skywarp teleported over to Anne and caught her by her hind legs, hovering in the air with the cat-former in hand. Anne looked up at him dumbly as he snickered.

"What's the matter?" he chuckled. "Cat got your tongue?"

Anne's ears laid back as her eyes narrowed in distaste.

"No," she replied. "I have _yours_."

With that some what creepy fact stated, Anne lunged out of Skywarp's grip and onto his face, making him drop to the ground with a small scream as she attacked him. Blitzwing took his optics off the rather amusing Skywarp vs. Anne display when he heard a familiar set of soft-toned jets approaching.

"Anne!" Josh yelled, speeding through the air in robot form to his friends' aide. "Are you okay?"

If Josh fought so close to his enemy's camp, he would be killed. He had to either run or be captured, ASAP. Blitzwing's face spun around in its setting, turning into Random.

"Ooh, little brother!" Blitzwing laughed, bursting into the air with a single violent thrust of his jets. "You're back!"

Before Josh could acknowledge that Blitzwing was there, Blitzwing head butted Josh straight on, knocking the Effort to the ground, unconscious. Anne heard the violent impact of metal and sat up, gasping when she saw Josh on the ground with his jets cooling.

"Josh!" she yelped, leaping from Skywarp and in her friend's direction

Blitzwing caught her by the scruff of her neck in mid-leap, though, capturing her with one hand on his hip and the other holding Anne. Random laughed at Anne as she struggled in his grip, hissing and growling like the feline she was.

"Ooh, look, Megatron, it's a kitten!" Blitzwing announced, holding Anne up to show Megatron. "Can I keep it and call it Fluffy?"

"Good work, Blitzwing," Megatron replied with a small, amused smile. "Yes, we may keep it, and her flying friend, too, but don't get too attached: I want to see their fathers' faces when I _behead them_ in front of them."

Nodding, Random Blitzwing was exchanged for Cold. Cold Blitzwing carelessly punched Anne in the head, knocking her out, before tossing her to Skywarp as he gained his feet. Turning, he picked up Josh, slinging the boy over his shoulder as he did. He heard engines roaring as they approached and turned his optics in the direction of the road as he changed to Hot Head. When he saw a red and a yellow Lamborghini charging up the road towards them, he growled and aimed his shoulder cannons at them.

The Lamborghinis saw him and stopped, their tires screeching like panicking girls on the pavement before they turned around and went back the way they came, barely out racing Blitzwing's jets of flames. Nodding in satisfaction, Blitzwing went back to the gang plank of the _Reborn Nemesis._ Just before he followed the other Decepticons up it, though, he spotted Willium standing near by, watching him go. Hot Head gave way to Cold, who spoke to Willium, talking loudly so that the other men in the camp could hear him.

"Willium Walter," he said, "You are now officially in charge of the Neo-Nazi forces until my return. Anyone who dares question your leadership must answer to _me_."

Several of the Nazi soldiers looked unhappy at this turn of events. They knew that Walter was their second in command, but due to his lack of official military or fighting background and how little he actually did beside Blitzwing, they had little to no respect for him. Walter and Blitzwing both knew this, but Walter saluted as he mutely accepted his new role.

Blitzwing nodded, a mute combination of good luck and good bye to his friend, before turning on his heels and marching up the gangplank. It slid back up into the ship as its doors slid shut. The ship rose up into the air, quickly shrinking as it disappeared into the blue sky.

- - - -

Having seen her friends get captured, Becky had managed to sneak behind the Neo-Nazi troops' backs and into the crawl space between two of the _Reborn Nemesis'_ enormous jet ports. Now she was squeezed into the space, wishing she could find a way to turn her audio receptors off as they were flooded with the roar of the jets on either side of her. The walls of the jet ports vibrated harshly against her metal skin, making her feel a robot's version of rub burn. Her whimper of displeasure was muted by the roar of the jets and wind as the _Reborn Nemesis_ continued its climb into the sky. The air began to grow warm around her as the craft became encased in a ball of fire while escaping the atmosphere. Pressing herself between the two jet ports to keep herself from slipping out of the crawl space, visions of being melted into the ship or slipping off and plummeting miles back to the ground passed by with in Becky's optics, making her tremble in fear.

_I'm gonna die!_ She thought. Her thought was retaliated by a buzz with in her own head and she couldn't help but smile in amusement as her own ability to detect lies detected the falseness of the statement. She had practiced her ability as a natural lie detector quite a bit ever since it had manifested in Transport City, but she was still discovering new things about it all the time.

Suddenly, the space warped and spun around Becky, making her open and shut her optic shudders several times in a series of blinks while her optics systems mysteriously went off line and returned again. When she could see again, she realized that the ship had stopped moving. Inching cautiously out of her hiding place, she looked around at where the _Reborn Nemesis_ had taken her.

She almost couldn't believe her optics at first. The day had become night time around her, but there were more stars than she had ever seen before not only in the sky, but _everywhere_. There was no horizon, no trees, no _Earth_, to spoil the unmarred beauty of space that was freckled with the bright pin points of stars and blushed with the dusty glow of distant galaxies. Such images she had only seen in Hubble space telescope pictures and in TV footage of space, but never for her own optics. It made her forget where she was for what reason…Until she started floating away.

Squeaking in surprise, she waved her arms, trying to control herself as she floated away from her spot, then sank. Rather than disappearing into space, though, she landed gently on a hard, cold, barren ground. She crouched, gripping the ground with her fingers, and looked around.

The ground she was on appeared to be apart of an enormous free-floating rock. A few hundred yards to her right there was an enormous barren complex surrounded by a ruined fence. She could distantly see the glowing red and purple optics of mechs as they stared at the newly arrived _Reborn Nemesis_. She had seen this place in her studies on the prisons of Earth and Cybertron.

_The Asteroid Prison Belt,_ she remembered, _where the Decepticons and the worst of the worst Cybertronian criminals go. But the fences… and the Decepticon ship coming here… Megatron planned a break out, some how, and now he's picking up his new men._

She heard a hiss of pressure locks releasing and looked up to see the gang plank dropping down from the ship once more. She quickly looked over the ship, her turquoise optics darting back and forth for a hidden air vent, porthole; _anything_ to let her into the ship.

Remembering how much her gravity had been reduced, she jumped up when she came to the underside of the ship. True to her hypothesis, she sailed up and through the air (or vacuum of space, probably, considering she was on an asteroid), and bumped into the underside of the space ship. She spotted a handle bar welded into the ship for repair drones and seized it. She pulled herself up against the ship and looked around again for a potential entrance into the ship, being all too aware of how little time she might have left before someone noticed her. Luckily, she spotted a door for repair 'bots near by and pulled herself over, following the handle bars leading to it. Next problem: How to get in…

"Smartmouth quit it!"

Becky jumped when a young male voice bellowed this and almost lost her grip on her perch bar. A stray laser shot from what ever was going on below slammed into the craft near Becky, making her stomach (or what ever she had in place of it), jump in fear. She heard a small buzz and looked up to see the repair 'bot door opening. A single long silver tentacle equipped with a nozzle at the end slithered out and towards the new burn hole. Not even waiting to see what would happen, Becky swung herself up into the new door, feet first, and into a closet sized compartment beyond. Looking around, she saw that the walls were lined on three sides with all sorts of silver tentacles, each carrying some sort of repair device or weapon. The fourth wall, containing the door, was the one Becky hesitantly opened and peeked out of.

With in was a narrow hall lined with narrow doors, each door was labeled with Cybertronian runes. Becky was somewhat sketchy on her fathers' native written language, but knew enough to know that the runes were labeling the doors as storage rooms. In the center of the short, narrow hall was an open set of small, narrow stairs leading up to higher quarters.

_If what MJ and Skyfire taught me about spaceships is true,_ Becky thought, recalling hearing the human adoptee and Transformer adopters' fond subject notes, _Then these are the repair pockets of the ship; areas where the repair equipment is stored and where no one comes unless the ship is seriously damaged. So, as long as the ship isn't harmed, I'm safe down here. I'll wait until this ship goes somewhere safe or has fewer Decepticons running around then I'll see about finding Josh and Anne and getting them home safe…_

Her plan made, Becky sat back in her repair closet and began to wait.

- - - -

The only thing that kept Mextron from flat out punching Smartmouth when she had fired her shoulder guns in the air as a hostile greeting to Starscream was his personal vow never to harm a fellow Decepticon Effort. But that did not mean that he didn't threaten to lock her in one of the jet ports.

"I'd like to see you try, _Junior_," Smartmouth responded to Mextron's threat with a vile, challenging grin.

"Enough of this," Megatron snapped, making the two youngsters break away from their argument to face the war lord. "What of my new recruits?"

To this, Mextron smirked confidently; a look that might as well have been cloned from Megatron himself. Turning around, he clipped his heels together and placed his hands behind his back, his bird-like jet wings stiff in a tall, proud commanding pose. He had turned to face the rabble of Transformers who stood a distance behind the party; staring up in awe at the _Reborn Nemesis_ while they whispered amongst themselves.

"Decepticons!" he roared. "Assemble!"

Amazingly enough, the rabble of soldiers that had once been mere prisoners and criminals shuffled about, quickly lining up in neat orderly rows of ten mechs by ten mechs. No one dared shove for space, elbow to be in front, or even refuse their orders. Megatron's eye brows raised in a pleasantly surprised, if not somewhat confused, expression, while Starscream's wings drooped and he tilted his head to the side in down right disbelief at the display of order. It is always a feat of strength to have such obedience on such a large scale in such a short time. Up in the cock pit of the _Reborn Nemesis_, Skywarp, Thundercracker and Blitzwing watched. Blitzwing's Random face tilted to the side curiously as he chewed on a long straw-sized tin pipe.

"Wow," Thundercracker whistled, "Kid's got game."

"Just like his hold man, eh, Thunder?" Skywarp chuckled, elbowing his friend's side approvingly.

"Not bad," Megatron said to Mextron. "Not bad at all. But will they follow _me_?"

The tips of Mextron's wings clicked as they twitched, but that was the only displeasure he expressed at the idea of handing the troops he had personally trained over to his superior. Instead, he merely nodded to Megatron and turned back to the troops.

"From hence forth," he shouted to the troops, "You will follow Lord Megatron without question. Understood?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" the new troops shouted back, inserting a salute.

Mextron stepped back and nodded again to Megatron. Megatron stepped forward and spoke.

"Gentlemen," he said. "It pleases me very much to see that there are still mechs with a strong spark and a proper processor on their shoulders. Of all of you, are there any mechs that were originally from my force on that cursed _water ball_ called Earth? If so, step forward and state your name."

"I am Shrapnel of the sub-faction Insecticons, Insecticons," one mech called.

"I am Kickback of the sub-faction Insecticons."

"I am Mixmaster; the last Constructicon."

"I am Dirge, of the unofficial sub-faction of Cone Heads."

After them, the mechs who stepped forward and stated their names would not be known by a common person; they were of a shadowy caliber of mechs and femmes that never earned reputations as Decepticons. They had never led a battle of significance, nor killed a soldier of notable rank, but Decepticons they were and Decepticons they are, and there were enough to make a difference.

With all of them coming out of the ranks and showing themselves, flashing their Decepticon insignias proudly, it was as if time had stopped and was rewinding. The Decepticon army, it seemed, was no longer an army of neophyte gladiators and half-bit punching men, but of true warriors that were ready to tear their foes limb from limb. With these true warriors interlacing the new army, the Decepticons had officially been restored to that which they were supposed to be: An army of brutal warriors, fighting like the demons of an evil netherworld on their quest for universal domination. And with their goal of going back to Cybertron, where it all started, time had, indeed, turned back.

Megatron could barely keep back the triumphant laughter that threatened to burst from his broad chest. He needed to keep his composure, after all, for the new recruits. But that did not stop the excited vibration he gave off, knowing that victory was sure to be his soon, as he tossed his hand up to the _Reborn Nemesis_ behind him.

"Well then," he declared. "Let us go take Cybertron!"


	17. Mario's a Learning Method Now?

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 17: Mario's a Learning Method Now???**

Meanwhile, back on Earth, a far less dramatic ship launch was occurring.

"_Is_ it complete?" Hound asked.

"Can it even fly?" Cliffjumper grunted.

"I seriously don't think it's supposed to tilt like that," Jess commented.

A small radio sitting on a crate near by suddenly cut off its broadcast.

_"It's crude, even by __my__ standards,_" Jack said from radio.

"Jack," Benjamin stated. "Stop hacking every electronic frequency you hear. And I agree with the others, Mr. Gadgetmaker and Sam; the ship looks… broken. We need to work on it more."

Sam and Gadgetmaker exchanged glances then looked behind themselves as the space cruiser that the party had spent the last month repairing. It was many times better than what it had been originally, but it still appeared to be lacking in the way of space-worthy conditions. It was heavily tilted on its landing struts, the wings were still nicked and dented, and the windshield was very much cracked and bruised. Gadgetmaker turned around, as did Sam, and rubbed his chin, humming in thought. Suddenly, his optics widened before closing them selves, as if sensing something. He emitted a machine's cough and Sam tilted his head slightly at his mentor, his raised eye brow going unseen by their peers.

To the others, it seemed like Gadgetmaker waved his hand in a dismissive gesture to show that the coughing was not serious, but what Sam saw was a signal that he had memorized with a dictionary of other such signals from his mentor.

_You take care of them. I have something super important to handle._ Was what that random hand motion said.

Gadgetmaker went behind the cruiser, out of sight of the party, as if he were checking on something. Sam turned to them, beaming his friendly, pearly white smile.

"Now, now, now, my friends," he said in a most assuring matter, "Gadgetmaker and I have been working on these kinds of things all our lives. I know that this baby looks crude and not worth a cross country trip, much less cross _space_, but trust me! We've done all we can to it short of a complete armor over haul and it can handle space. We _can_ go for the armor over haul, but it'll be extremely expensive, not to mention that it might put another month of waiting on Max."

Benjamin chewed his lip briefly in thought then shook his head. Max was a pain, and a paranoid fool, but he needed to be rescued. The reminder that Max was in danger convinced him to take Sam's word.

"It'll do, then," he said. "We'll take a nap to rest up, grab some food, and launch by noon."

"What about us?" Cliffjumper asked. "We can't fit in that thing, and Skyfire's still busy passing troops around Europe!"

"I wish I could bring you with us, I really do," Benjamin told him and Hound, "But we _really_ can't put off. You two can go back to your patrolling sectors. Sam, do you mind of coming with us on this mission? We'll need your help if the ship starts acting up: you know the ship better than I, and you are a good mechanic. Mr. Gadgetmaker," he called, "You're small enough to come with us in the ship. Will you be accompanying us?"

Gadgetmaker came out from behind the craft, wrench in hand and grinning sadly.

"Nah," he replied. "I'm too old for space trips. But I wish you the best of luck."

Benjamin nodded and stated, "Thank you, Gadgetmaker. We owe you a huge debt. Sam, Jess: Let's go grab some rest before we go."

"Um, can I have a private word with Sam?" Gadgetmaker asked with his voice cracking as he put an arm around Sam. "This kid is like a son to me and, well, going off to face Decepticons and all…"

"We understand, Mr. Gadgetmaker," Hound said with a nod.

Once the Autobots had left, Gadgetmaker took his arm off of Sam and turned to Sam, his optics sparking seriously.

"I just barely managed to intercept a signal with my hacking communications link box," he said to Sam. "The _Reborn Nemesis_ has been launched and picked up the Decepticon Elites in Europe, as well as a couple of Autobot Effort prisoners: Anne and Josh. It was coming in strong; from Skyfire himself. If you hadn't distracted those _idiots_, I wouldn't have had the concentration to block the signal. Let's hope that noon arrives fast; I can keep the signal off for that long, but I'm keeping that Jack Turbine kid out, too. You might have to give our little _pals_ a reason for a fast lift off and out of the way of these signals."

"Want me to call up a friend or two?" Sam asked.

"That would be great."

- - - -

_Cool, emotionless life. Do as the Masters say and all would be well. Everything seemed… slow, as if in sludge. His orders had been to train and train he had. It would not be long now before the Masters would draw his prey to him and he would fight them. Then he would show them that he was just not an idiot boy any more, but a true warrior capable of anything that they were capable of. For now, he merely waited in a cool, slow, emotionless shell…_

Benjamin stirred in his sleep, clutching his left arm and squealed in pain as he felt something cut it in his nightmare.

_Max! Max! Where are you, Max? Where are you?_ He thought frantically.

Suddenly, Sam appeared at Hound's side as the Autobot rested in his jeep mode. Sam shook Benjamin hard.

"Ben! Ben! Benny boy, we gotta go!" Sam was hissing, "We got company!"

Benjamin awoke and the nightmare and all memories of it disappeared instantly. Benjamin blinked his unnaturally rich blue eyes sleepily as he sat up, shaking the sleep from his body. Sam darted around the napping, jeep-form Hound to Cliffjumper, who was also napping in vehicle form with Jess with in him. Benjamin became more awake, though, when he heard a too-familiar whistling and explosion of exchanging laser fire.

"Looks like Breaker Labs caught wind of our operations and came to knock us back to the ground. We gotta lift off _now_!" Sam yelped, dragging Jess out of Cliffjumper. The Autobots awoke and transformed into robot mode once the children were out of them.

"Let's go, amigos!" Sam yelled, bolting across the yard towards the garage.

"Get going, kids," Hound ordered, drawing his gun. "I recognize Transformer fire when I hear it. Son of glitches teamed up with Breaker Labs…"

"Come on!" Sam bellowed.

Benjamin looked around, trying to determine where the fight was coming from. Suddenly, the ground at his feet jumped and spewed black smoke as it was instantly dried and fried by a ruby red laser shot. Looking up, he saw Gadgetmaker hiding behind an over turned SUV parked on the lawn in front of the garage while three Transformers stood on the edge of the forest, shooting at them.

"Get _going_, you idiot!" Cliffjumper snarled, booting Benjamin away gently.

"Ben, come on!" Jess yelled, already half way to the garage.

Benjamin looked at her, then back at the battle before bolting after Jess to the garage. With in, he followed Jess into their beaten around craft where Sam was in the pilot seat, flipping switches and turning knobs as he went.

"Breaker Labs… battle… weapons…" Benjamin muttered, squeezing into the co-pilot seat. "Jess," he said aloud, "Take the gun seat in the back of the ship-er, craft- and shoot down at the Breaker Lab agents while we get out of here. Make sure we don't get grounded!"

"On it!" Jess confirmed, taking the four steps to the back of the craft.

"So, Sam," Benjamin said as he strapped in, "Do you know how to fly this thing?"

"Not really, I thought you did," Sam said, looking at Benjamin.

They stared at each other in disbelief. Before they could say anything about who was going to be the driver, a laser shot through the ceiling near by, making them jump and turn to see. The stray shot had burned a clean half-circle indent on one of their craft wings.

"Okay, let's try this, the video game style," Sam muttered, finishing powering up their craft.

"Meaning?" Benjamin asked.

"Seriously, you don't know the video game way?" Sam asked while their craft coughed and groaned to life. Sam carefully moved the football goal-shaped steering control in front of him, making the ship float up uncertainly and turn towards the open garage door. It began to slowly drift forward.

"I, um," Benjamin looked away, "Never played video games."

Sam pulled hard on the steering gear, making the ship stop suddenly. He turned to Benjamin.

"Seriously," he asked, "You never played video games before?"

"Sam!" Benjamin exclaimed. He glanced from the red haired boy to the garage door uncertainly.

"Not even Mario?"

"Sam now's not the time!"

"Oh come on, _everyone's_ played Mario at least _once_ in their life times!"

"Sam; they're getting closer!"

"Okay, you see, when a kid starts a videogame, they never look at the help menu or any booklet; they just press buttons randomly until they know what button does what in the game…"

"Is this really necessary?"

"What's the hold up here?" Jess called from the back of the craft.

"Hence, other than the start up process, we're just gonna press buttons randomly until we know what does what—"

A foreboding black robot silhouette appeared in the garage doorway.

"SAM!!" Benjamin and Jess screamed.

"I'm just helping—"Sam tried saying.

Shouting in frustration, Benjamin seized the steering gear in front of him self and shoved forward. The craft's three propulsion jets screamed to life like an excited kid, rocketing yellow jets of flame behind them before shooting forward fast enough to slam everyone back in their seats. The robot in the garage door way barely managed to duck out of the way as the ship zipped out of the garage. Benjamin screamed when he saw them approaching the forest around the warehouse's land and pulled down on the steering gear. Their craft's nose pointed towards the sky, as if trying to howl to the sun. It shot up and up into the atmosphere, shaking violently as they passed through the organic planet's protective shell of a sky.

"Oh my _gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd!"_ Jess screamed from her seat. She kicked the air excitedly as she laughed hysterically, caught up on a high that can only be created from blasting out of Earth's atmosphere at 561-plus miles an hour.

"Holy _scrap_," Benjamin yelled over the roar of the air passing by them outside. "I'm flying this thing!"

"The videogame way, Benny boy," Sam cackled. "The coordinates to Cybertron are already in the computer; just press the _big_ purple button!"

He pointed and Benjamin followed the finger's direction to a flashing purple button on the ceiling as large as a dollar coin. Benjamin's arm forced itself past the gravity being exerted on it to press the button.

The world flashed outside of their little ship and suddenly spun completely over with a wild, excited whoop, turning them upside down before straightening up again, only to rock on its settings. Benjamin thought he screamed in excitement, but it was hard to tell over the roar of space and light around them and Jess' own crazed whooping.

Then, as suddenly as it had all began, it stopped. Benjamin was flung forward in his seat belt with a violent jolt and his heart gasped in fear when he heard glass and metal clash violently into something hard and compact. Laser screamed al over the place and her saw the world spinning around outside; a city, a dark sky, many bodies flying all over the place, and smoke coming from the engine area.

Then blackness swept in to disguise his fear.

- - - -

Cliffjumper struggled as two of his captors pinned him to the ground while the other struggled to get his wrists into a pair of Transformer stasis cuffs.

"Let go of me you slagging sons of glitches!" he snarled. "Let me up and I'll gut you from chin to exhaust port and use your cooling systems as a noose to hang your worthless metal shells from a cliff by your miserable Primus-be-damned necks--!"

Cliffjumper's litany was cut short as the cuffs were finally clasped around his wrists. He jerked and grunted in pain as electricity ran from the cuffs all across his body, then went limp as the cuffs' technology paralyzed his mobile abilities. His captors picked him up and tossed him into the small garage that had once been where their small space craft had been, landing him right beside a similarly cuffed and paralyzed Hound. Cliffjumper's optics flared violently at the larger mechs. When Gadgetmaker stepped out from behind them, Cliffjumper growled low in his throat in fury.

"What's the matter, Cliffjumper?" Gadgetmaker cackled, smacking a spot on his chest with his fist in a salute-like manner. "Don't recognize an old _swindler?_"

Even Cliffjumper's optics widened in shock, mirroring Hound's own mute optics, as the paint job on Gadgetmaker changed. Spreading from the place Gadgetmaker had tapped, bright orange coloring became golden yellow while navy blue became purple. A Decepticon insignia flashed and appeared on his chest where he had tapped it. He lowered his head as he tapped the side of it.

"You know," he said, "I _really_ hate this alias, safety measures set aside. I mean, honestly: _Gadgetmaker_? What am I, some sort of toy maker or crack pot inventor?"

Two blue optic lenses plopped from the mechs' face and into a waiting palm. When he raised his head again to look at Hound and Cliffjumper, his navy blue optics had been replaced with large purple optics that sparked with triumph and confidence.

"I think _Swindle_ is a _much_ better name for me, don't you think?" he finished.

Cliffjumper and Hound muttered something that had probably been an attempt at asking, "Swindle??" before the garage doors were slid shut in their faces. Swindle took a round device from a compartment in his side and attached it to the garage doors. He pressed a brief sequence of buttons and a pale purple force field spread from the device to cover the garage before fading out, taking the garage with it and leaving an apparently empty space of green grass where it had been.

"There," Swindle stated confidently. "That should keep them, keep people from nosing around, _and_ remove an eye sore on the property. Now…"

He turned to the three hired Transformer thugs standing behind him. He looked up (and up) at them, secretly wishing that he hadn't been hit by a shrink ray and was still a proper Transformer size.

"You held up your end of the deal," he stated. "Now it's time for me to hold up mine. Come along."

The thugs followed Swindle over to the main hangar. He disappeared for a few minutes inside the warehouse then came back out, paying up an array of minor weaponry and Transformer credits to the thugs.

"Hey, Swindle," one of the thugs said, "Now that the war's in full swing and your identity is gonna be out there for the Autobots to find, what are you gonna do when the Autobots come running?"

"What else?" Swindle replied, flashing a large, confident grin up at his business partners. "Make deals, not war."


	18. Back to Square One

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 18: Back to Square One**

Optimus was waiting in the cell with his follow Autobot fathers, anxiously awaiting their fate. Their final court case had been heard the day before and now they were awaiting the results of the hearing. If the court had found them in favor, they would be free to go with no scars on their reputation or record. If they didn't, it would mean going to a prison where they had probably sent half the thugs they had faced off with in the past.

The door slid open and the fathers looked up as Mirage and Blurr entered. Mirage appeared formal enough, but the enormous grin on Blurr's face was a dead give away. The nervous Autobots' heads rose, exchanging hopeful glances that were turned to their political friends. Mirage and Blurr exchanged glances, then Mirage shrugged and waved a dismissive "as you will" gesture to Blurr.

"Thecouncilwasinfavor,guys," Blurr burst out. "You'refreetogowithnoblackmarks,smudges,issues,

Dirty, littlesecretsor , andallwithouthavingtodo anydirtydealsbribesor

Blackmailingor assassinations, although thatlastplanwas a seriousoption at thatyou're

Free!"

"That's great—wait, did you say 'assassinations'?" Prowl asked nervously.

"Who cares?" Jazz exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air carelessly. "Let's go! I gotta see how my kid, Josh, is doing against the Decepti-creeps!"

"How _is_ the war going on back on Earth, Mirage?" Optimus asked as the Autobots exited their cell.

"Not good, I'm afraid," Mirage said as his face fell unhappily. "According to the most recent reports from Wheeljack in Europe, the Decepticons have a new starship. Anne and Josh were captured and taken aboard that ship, and Becky hasn't been seen anywhere, so we think she may have snuck onto the ship after her friends."

Jazz, Ratchet and Prowl all stopped short, exchanging shocked looks. Bumblebee swallowed nervously before speaking.

"And of—and of Max," he asked nervously. "Is Max okay?"

Mirage looked Bumblebee straight in the optic, apparently gathering strength from with in.

But at that moment, before he could answer Bumblebee, the entire building shook as something made a mighty impact somewhere. The Transformers looked up and around nervously, trying to determine where the impact had come from. A small wail announced the beginning of emergency sirens before the warning buzzers of their hall flared to life, flashing their red lights wildly as they activated from their perch on the walls and attention-grabbing buzzers warned them that all was _not_ fine.

"What's going on?" Prowl asked.

"I'llgolook!" Blurr declared. Less than a second later, a silvery blue smudge took his place in the air. On the exact count of five later, he reappeared.

"Decepticons attacking intheirnewwarship!" he exclaimed. "Comeon, we needallthe forceswe

Can get inthemainparking lotwhere they'reattacking ohboyohboy ohboy it'sjustliketheold dayswithstupid

Scrapheads rainingfromabove, beingtotallyoutnumbered, outsized, butnotoutdone ohmy Primusherewe

Go again!"

"Decepticons, main parking lot," Ironhide exclaimed. "Mirage, we need our weapons!"

"Follow me," Mirage instructed, transforming and speeding off down the hall. "Blurr, go help fight!"

Blurr saluted before once again vanishing into thin air while the Autobot fathers transformed into their Earthling vehicle forms and followed Mirage through the halls to where ever their weapons were stored. It was a mere storage room and the Autobots suited up in moments before following Mirage out of the room and to where ever the battle was. Ironhide was left behind as he re-equipped his armory of weapons. He came to a particular gun and suddenly grimaced, hefting it in his hands and looking over it.

"Alright," he yelled, "What half-pint rookie was playing with my gun? I _know _that _this _one didn't have the safety lock engaged!"

_"Ironhide!"_ Optimus called over the communications link. _"Hurry up!"_

"I'm a comin'! I'm a comin'!" Ironhide called, holstering his gun and transforming into his van alt-mode.

From the storage room it didn't take him long to find the battlefield... particularly because it had blown a large part of the building apart.

Beyond the bombed ruins, there was a massive, silver-ground courtyard and parking lot acting as the Cybertronian Counsel Headquarters' relaxation area. Right now, though, it was anything _but_ relaxing.

The colossal form of the _Reborn Nemesis_ floated over head, emitting wave after wave of Decepticons. Autobots were battling the Decepticons in ferocious hand-to-hand and long-distance combat, tearing up the once pain-staking polished ground and causing energon to pour across it and make it slick. Cybertronian Counsel mechs were being evacuated to his right; being escorted onto star ships that quickly fled the battle. He could see the towering form of Optimus above the heads of the Transformers already in battle. Around him, there were the other Autobot Effort fathers fighting for the very political body that had had them imprisoned only minutes before.

Watching the battle, Ironhide was suddenly drowned in a possessive sense of de' ja' vu'. Had it really been so long ago, before Earth and before the Efforts, when he had stood on a battleground so much like this one fighting for his life and freedom? Primus, it was almost creepy how time had a way of turning back on itself in the most unexpected times.

But now was not the time or place to ponder on this point, as one Decepticon proved by tackling Ironhide. Ironhide swung a hand up, slamming the two cyber pistols away from his face, and found him self looking at the broad-shouldered, yellow and black form of Mash.

"You again!?" Ironhide exclaimed. "What are _you _doing here??"

"Kicking your aft," Mash replied, aiming one of his pistols at Ironhide.

Bumblebee was flung through the air by a Decepticon at that moment and knocked Mash off of Ironhide as he flew through the air. In moments Ironhide got to his feet and shot at Mash before the Decepticon could attack the yellow bee-bot. Mash rolled out of the way and into his jeep-mode, fleeing away to softer quarry.

"Behind you!" Bumblebee shouted.

Ironhide turned around in time to receive the full blow of Flickword's fist, knocking him, skidding, across the ground. Ironhide leaped right back onto his feet and stopped Flickword's hands with his own as they came in to throttle the Autobot. The two mechs found themselves locked in the stalemate position, unequal in size, but equal in strength.

"I won't give up if you won't," Ironhide grunted.

"Then let's see who snaps first," Flickword snapped back.

Near them, Ratchet was desperately trying to keep a turbo-fox from chewing his face off while the fox's mistress battled Autobot guards near by.

"Get outa here, you mangy ball of silicon!" Ratchet snarled.

The fox hissed and leaped at Ratchet, latching its jaws onto his shoulder. Ratchet cried out and swung at the fox, striking it hard enough to knock it loose from his shoulder, minus a few teeth and plus a large, pained yip.

"Corona!" the femme wailed, darting over to her fox and picking it up.

She carefully folded the turbo fox into its disk alt-mode and placed it in a compartment in her chest. She whipped about to face Ratchet as her optics flared in anger.

"You…" she growled, voice dripping with venom.

"Bring it on, femme," Ratchet snarled, clutching a wrench in one hand and a gun in the other as he struck a battle pose. "I've dealt with bigger she-dogs than you."

"The name is Solarflare," the femme replied coolly. "Tell Primus that that's who sent you."

Solarflare took to the air, flying high up before dropping down to stomp Ratchet into the ground.

- - - -

Warning sirens were going off all over the city, but were beginning to be muffled and muted as explosions over powered them, caused by the heavy artillery that was being blasted into civilian and governmental buildings alike. The Transformer city was made of metal far stronger than anything on Earth, and its residents were made of the same metal, but the reaction was always the same when war came to a place that was previously peaceful: Civilians panicked and ran while their attackers destroyed all that they loved.

Among the crowds of Cybertronian people fleeing the battle, a young femme did not follow the crowd, nor even attempt to follow its direction. Instead, she ran through the alley ways of the buildings in her futuristic motorcycle mode, her silver head light flickering uncertainly in fear. Skidding to a halt at the end of an alley way, she stopped and transformed.

Her metal seat, covered in some thin, but soft cloth coating, became a round-cornered, downward-pointing triangular pack. The back wheel split, becoming long, shapely turquoise and white legs with black rubber boots, while the front wheel broke into turquoise and white arms with black gloves. Her main appearance was that of a smallish, almost too-thin, turquoise and white femme in a cheerleader's sleeveless, short-skirt uniform with joint-length black gloves and boots. She had a head of sensory cables, resembling hair, that were tied into twin, long pig tails behind her head, bound almost all the way to the ends with metal strips. The femme's wide, round blue optics twitched nervously as she peeked out of the ally way.

The streets were in chaos. Formally relaxed citizens were fleeing for their lives from the Decepticons raining from the _Reborn Nemesis_ high above her. The citizens were so busy running for their lives and the Decepticons were so busy killing that she was confident that no one would see her in the ally way. Panting heavily, she leaned her back against the wall and closed her optics, taking long, slow, deep breaths. Clearing her mind easily, she reached for her power, her Universal Computer Program, UCP. It had developed when she was young, and had yet to fail her.

_Where is he…_ she thought quietly. _Where is the man who will take me away from my safe life…_

Imagine the terror she felt when a far stronger, older, masculine presence swept across her own mind, answering her at the exact same time as her UCP did.

_Right behind you._

Screaming in fear, the young teen-bot femme plunged forward as a blue and white metal hand attempted to seize her from behind. She hit the ground at a roll and flipped over, looking up as a notorious blue and white mech landed behind her.

"H-How…?" she gasped.

In response, Soundwave hovered a foot off the ground.

"Hover abilities," he stated. "Come with me or I will use force."

The girl, of course, did _not_ move towards Soundwave and instead transformed into her futuristic motorcycle alt-form and sped out of the alley way with her tires reflecting the scream of terror and panic sounding in her head. Soundwave flew after her, not even bothering to land and run. Aiming his shoulder cannon down, he shot the femme. A blue ball of electricity went from the mech to the femme, making revert to her robot form with a pained cry before collapsing to the ground. Soundwave landed and walked towards her, fully intended on taking her back to Megatron for reprogramming, as were his orders. The femme sat up, whimpering in fear and pain as Soundwave came closer.

Then Blurr crashed into Soundwave.

Soundwave felt a brief impact in his side before finding him self crashing into a building wall in a partial daze. Blurr looked around, wondering where the impact of metal had come from.

"Ohdarn,overshot," Blurr stated. He spotted Soundwave and gasped, "Ohmy Primusit'sSoundwave! Soundwave you bastard,whyareyouhere? Oh, well, duh, you'rejustheretocompletely destroy everything thatanyone has everloved on Cybertron wellgood luck withthat, butwho's yourfriend? No Decepticon symbol? I guess she'sjust an innocent bystander well I won'tlet youhurt hercomeon, kid, I'llgetyou to the safest placeonCybertron!"

Thus speaking, Blurr picked the teen-bot up and bolted away, leaving Soundwave to slowly climb to his feet as delayed pain began to settle in. Blurr briefly reappeared in front of him, the teen-bot gone, and punched Soundwave in the chin, knocking him back down, before bolting away once more.


	19. Cassetticon Suspicion

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 19: Cassetticon Suspicion**

As the war cancer started on Cybertron, on the edges of the city where it had been planted, a quiet mech roamed. Skynet had spent the past month roaming Cybertron for the perfect Cassetticon and had yet to find a suitable candidate. He had spotted potentials and had watched them, but upon closer inspection, he would see flaws that would jeopardize any relationship he would make with the could-have-been Cassetticon: a hidden spark of honor, a certain trigger that would make them uncontrollable; an arresting, un-erasable fear. All in all, most people would have given up on this sort of quest or gone for the next-best thing. But Skynet was not most people: He _would_ find a Cassetticon that would work with and for him and refused to lower the bar for such expectations.

Now he stood on a low Cybertronian building roof. On the other side of the city, the titanic body of the _Reborn Nemesis_ hovered over the city, spewing out soldiers and causing chaos as it went. In the street, even this far away from the battle, people were running away. When Transformers in vehicle form crashed into one another, some reverted to robot form and even scrambled over the stalemate companions. Skynet almost felt disgusted: These were Transformers, a so-called superior race to humans, and here they were, panicking and scrambling over one another for safety like any other stupid, panicking human or animal.

Pathetic.

At that moment, a bright pale blue light flickered with in Skynet's telepathic vision, glowing brightly amidst the black, brown, orange, and panicking pink of the other living bodies' emotions. Skynet looked around, calmly seeking the source of the flicker. Then he spotted the source of it: A small Transformer, bounding over the roofs of the traffic-locked vehicle-formed Transformers. He was carrying a small metal box in hand and a distance behind him, police cruisers were darting after the quick little fellah. It appeared that this robot, in spite of just being the height of a tall human, had caused quite a bit of trouble with the law with in the chaos spurned up by the Decepticons' sudden attack.

As he drew closer, Skynet saw more of the robot: He appeared to be a modernized version of a typical Cassetticon body like Rumble or Frenzy: He was square in shoulder, amazingly flat in the front, with square lower limbs. But the back of his helmet was slightly swept back and pointed, like a bike racer's, and the dark blue visor covering his optics had obvious, but still-rounded corners, making it look like his visor was a pair of connected, round-cornered, down-turned triangles. The little Transformer's white face was currently brightened up with a triumphant, fang-exposing grin while his bright, icy blue body ran away from the cops.

He jumped off of the river of traffic, entering an alley, and spun around to face the cop cruisers as they pulled up and transformed into robots. The running robot took one hand off of his stolen box and aimed its palm at the police. A shower of white powder crystal flew from his palm and a thin sheet of ice covered the ground between him and the cops. It was thin, but it was enough to make the first police mech to step on it slip and fall. Laughing triumphantly, the robot turned and sprinted off again.

"Halt, thief!" one of the three police mech bellowed, drawing his gun and firing.

A bright spurt of energon and metal flew from the icing robot's shoulder as the gun's shot brushed his shoulder, making him cry out and fall to the ground in pain. The stolen box clattered away from him and fell open. From the box spilled several small, glowing gem stones that fell down a sewer grating.

The Cassetticon heard a small whirring noise above him and looked up to see, of all things, a hover camera floating over him. But rather than stare down at his embarrassing defeat, it was aimed at the police mech behind the thief, who were now using their laser fire to melt the treacherous ice barrier.

"Come with me," the hover camera stated. The handle folded out of the bottom of the camera; a device used for when one wanted to pull a hover camera _out_ of the air.

"A talking hover camera…?" the thief began to ask.

A bright red glowing spot appeared briefly on the dark blue camera and when it faded out, a Decepticon insignia had appeared.

"Ah, nice," the thief chuckled, sitting up and grabbing the underside handle. "Let's go."

"Freeze, criminals!" one of the cops shouted, finally getting past the icy ground and approaching the couple as the hover camera pulled the thief to his feet.

"My Primus, these boys need better dialogue," the icing thief sighed, shaking his head in pity.

_"How about a thesaurus?"_ a new male voice asked from the camera.

The thief looked at the camera, "Who--?"

"Rockpunch: Eject," the Decepticon camera stated.

The slot that would carry a typical hover camera's video tape opened up and a brown and scarlet video tape flew out. When it had reached the peak of its leap, which was well above even the brawny police-Formers' heads, it transformed into a tall human-sized robot. This robot was largely regular, average-sized in the muscle department except his hands were massive gauntlets, as if he had wanted to make both hands like Hellyboy's, and his feet were large and rounded. His helmet was round-cornered cube shaped and he had a round-cornered scarlet visor over his optics that was clear enough to allow one to see his optics beneath. A purple Decepticon insignia was stamped proudly on his chest.

With a wild whoop, Rockpunch dove down onto one of the police mechs, slamming both over-sized fists into his face. The cop fell to the ground hard, unconscious, with Rockpunch crouching on top of him. Rockpunch swung a fist backwards, catching a cop next to him by the back of the knees and making their knees unlock and topple them to the ground. Dropping both hands behind him, Rockpunch swung himself up to balance on his hands only, like a gorilla, while his legs struck out and slammed into the fallen cop's face.

The third cop stepped back, completely dumbfounded at the power of the little brown and scarlet-colored robot and appeared to be ready to run away and call for back up. Rockpunch, though, stood, turning to the final cop, and swung a fist out, but not at the cop but rather, the ground. The ground instantly jumped up and crumbled at Rockpunch's touch, streaking in a controlled path to the cop. Once it had gotten under his feet, he lost his footing as the ground crumbled beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground. From there, it was a quick one-two punch and he was down for the count.

Rockpunch stood on his fallen foes, crossing his arms across his chest as he turned and smiled to the waiting hover camera and the shocked thief, whose jaw was dropped wide open in a muted shout of amazement.

"What do you think, Skynet?" Rockpunch asked, grinning proudly, "Not bad for the first time out, eh?"

"Approval: Maximum," Skynet replied. The hover camera pulled itself from the thief's grip, now that rescuing appeared not to be needed, and turned to the thief. "Designation?"

"Huh?" the thief asked.

"The boss-bot asked what your name is, dummy," Rockpunch said, rolling his eyes. Something about his accent was strange, but the thief couldn't put his finger on it.

"Oh, I don't have one."

Rockpunch tilted his head questioningly while the hover camera tilted _itself_ questioningly.

"Yeah, I've always been a loner," the thief went on. "Parents never wanted me, ran away from orphanage life, lived the free, rough life ever since, yadda, yadda, yadda; same sob story. I stopped having a name a long time ago. Had so many names with so many different parties that it didn't much matter any more; Ice Smack, Frosty, Jack Frost, Snow Hand, Blizzard, stupid glitching slagger, you womanizing bastard; it all became the same to me. So, yeah, no name."

"Womanizing bastard?" Rockpunch snickered. "Sounds like you've been around the block a few times."

"And I made sure to stop at the grocery store for the check out femme, too," the thief replied with a small smirk.

To this, Rockpunch burst out laughing and clapped his hands in approval as he rocked on his feet.

"Oh, I like this guy, boss bot!" he laughed, "Can we keep him?"

"Excuse me?" the thief asked while one side of his visor appeared to grow in a raise-eye brow look.

"Current goal: Find and adopt suitable Cassetticon squad for self," Skynet stated blandly. "Status quo desired: Five Cassetticons. Status quo filled: One. Set backs in goal: Lack of suitable Cassetticons—"

"It's harder than it looks," Rockpunch interjected.

"So, wait, you're making your own Cassetticon squad," the thief said, pointing to Skynet. "_You're_ the only one he's gotten so far," he went on, pointing to Rockpunch. "And you want _me_ to join?" he asked, pointing to himself.

"Strengths: Desirable," Skynet stated, "Mentality: Desirable—"

"Woha, how the Pit would you know anything about me?" the thief snapped, "What, have you been stalking me?"

"He's got a _way _cooler way of finding out what you are than stalking," Rockpunch snickered.

The thief gasped and sat back when he felt a foreign presence sweep into his head. It didn't push or probe or interact with him in any way; it just let him know that it was there.

"T-T-Telepath!?" he stammered when the presence left him. "Y-You're a freaking _telepath_?"

"Correct," Skynet replied.

The thief was starting to see a connection and got to his feet as he spoke his thoughts aloud.

"Telepath… Cassetticons… Decepticons…And where have I heard Skynet before--" he muttered, connecting it together. His face suddenly went blank as he looked up and an invisible epiphany light bulb flashed to life over his head.

"Holy scrap!" he shouted, jumping back from the Cassetticon and hover camera. "You're a Decepticon Effort! I heard about you on the news! You're Soundwave's kid, aren't you??"

"Affirmative," Skynet replied.

"Holy Primus!" the thief went on, turning to Rockpunch. "So, where'd he pick you up? Did he force you to join or did you come willingly? Did he pick you up on an asteroid or what?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Rockpunch said, shaking his head and waving his hands in front of him in a negative gesture. "You see, I was once _human_ before Skynet took me in—don't interrupt!" he exclaimed when he saw the thief open his mouth.

"Anyway," he went on. "I was just a lost guy in Korea on Earth. I'd try making a life for myself in boxing, failed because I broke too many rules, and tried in the underground fighting ring and failed because I couldn't cover my own back outside of the ring where rivals could beat me to death with no refs around. I was too old for school, too wild for work, and too temperamental and pride-filled for bottom-feeder jobs like garbage man and the like. Simply put: I was looking forward to only my own pile of trash in some back ally and a rusty dented mug to hold out to people for change."

The thief grimaced, but did not interrupt; he had gotten the idea as to how far Rockpunch had been sunk in his original human life.

"Anyway," Rockpunch continued. "On the last day I could live in my home before the bank reclaimed it and everything in it, I went to the beach and was debating feeding myself to the sharks when some rival thugs from the underground fighting ring came after me. Now, just because I was thinking about being shark bait _does not_ mean that I was going to let a bunch of skin head punks take me out.

"Long story short, I almost got killed, but then Skynet here…"

He whacked Skynet's hover camera body playfully. Skynet did no move an inch and Rockpunch shook his hand afterwards, grimacing in pain while he kept talking. Skynet was stronger than he looked.

"Rescued me," Rockpunch went on. "He read my mind, saw my predicament, kicked the slag out of the skin heads, and offered me a sweet deal: Become his Cassetticon and he would be able to feed and house me. Seemed like a simple, sweet deal. Now, granted, I didn't think that _this_ would happen," He gestured to himself to indicate the human-to-robot transformation, "But then again, I'm not one for brains and, eh, I got used to it.

"Point is that you're being offered a once in a life time chance, mister, and you shouldn't waste it. Think of it as working for your typical crime boss, but this boss will actually care for you. So, what do you say, mister?"

Skynet transformed and the thief stepped back in surprise at what he saw. Skynet offered a large black metal hand to the thief.

"Are you in or out?" Rockpunch asked, grinning slyly.

The thief considered the offer. Skynet hardly had to use his telepathy to see what he was thinking; he was thinking about all those years he had spent guarding himself from being hurt, all those nights of sleeping with one optic open, and all those days of lying to keep others from harming him. The thief was probably tempted to just turn around and run away, going with a personal trust-no-one policy. But then there was that small part of him that everyone had that desired nothing but to be with others, the part that wanted to find someone he could trust. Skynet reached in ever so carefully with his mind and began reaching to push the nameless thief in the right direction, but the thief beat him to it without help.

The thief looked up at Skynet then placed his own icy blue hand in Skynet's own.

"I'm in," he said.

Blue and red energy crackled down Skynet's arm to the thief's, leaping up the thief's arm and covering him. The thief reared back and cried out in surprise and pain, but Skynet seized his hand tightly and prevented him from drawing away. This was a decision he could _not _back out of. The energy sought out and found the thief's transformation program, erasing the schematics that were already there and loading in the schematics for a video tape. The energy whipped around and around the thief, seeking weak spots to strengthen and energize dying fuel cells. With in the strange, paralyzing pain the thief felt, he also felt a new strength filling him unlike anything he had ever felt before, reaching out into empty space only to be caught and tied in by a foreign entity.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The energy dissipated from the thief and he collapsed weakly into the waiting arms of Skynet. When Skynet spoke, it was with in the thief's own mind; a strange, new feeling, and yet, comforting in a twisted, creepy sort of way.

_You'll be weak for a while yet,_ Skynet said gently, _Just rest._

The last two words became some sort of signal underlined with a deeper meaning and understanding. The thief transformed into a video tape. Skynet gently slid the video tape into a compartment on his back and a moment later, Rockpunch slid into the compartment, also in video tape form. The thief felt Skynet shift around him and turn into a hover camera that quickly flew up and away over the roof tops.

_So,_ Rockpunch said, _what are we gonna call the new guy, boss-bot?_

_Is Suspicion adequate?_ Skynet asked.

The thief considered the name for a long time, rolling it around in his head. Truth to tell, it was certainly a lot better than any of the other names he had been given in the past, all either being derogatory insults or ice themed. It also highlighted one of his main characteristics: His sense of paranoia to everyone.

_I like it,_ Suspicion approved.


	20. Of All the Crash Points

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 20: Of All the Crash Points in the Entire Galaxy…**

The sound of battle was what woke Benjamin up first. It was the typical battle sounds; screaming laser fire, roaring heavily missiles, shrieking jet engines, the works. But when he opened his eyes and sat up, though, he was _not_ in a typical battle field.

The spacecraft he, Sam, and Jess had taken to Cybertron had crashed into a massive purple metal interstellar ship of some sort, which was currently hovering what appeared to be Cybertron's main political district. All around, Decepticons and Autobots flew through the air and fought each other, completely oblivious as to the crashed craft lying on the war ship's back like some dead tick.

"You've _got _to be kidding me," he said.

"Of all the places in the entire universe we could crash," Sam groaned, rubbing his head as he sat up, "It _had _to be on the back of a mother-slagging _war ship_ in battle."

Jets hissed behind Benjamin and he spun around to see a dark red and grey femme Seeker land behind him with a dragon fly-winged mech beside her. Benjamin stepped back in shock at recognizing the two from Transport City and Autobot reports.

"Smartmouth and Ferrofluid," he growled.

"Well, well, well," Smartmouth cackled. "Look at who wants to play with the big bots, Ferrofluid! How cute!"

"Let's just get them in a proper prison receptacle," Ferrofluid grunted, kneeling and picking up the remains of their craft. He turned it over, then reached in through a large rip and pulled out an unconscious Jess. Before Benjamin could object, Smartmouth seized him up.

- - - -

Jess awoke to find her self lying on a cold metal bench in a large bland room. Benjamin was pacing back and forth in front of the clear purple force field that made up the door way of their prison and Sam sat on the bench with Jess' head in her lap. She sat up groggily and rubber her face. She felt for Pointblank and was unhappy, but not surprised, to see that Pointblank was gone. She sighed tiredly.

"Alright," she said, "Who captured us this time?"

"Decepticons," Benjamin replied, "We crashed right into their ship, the _Reborn Nemesis_, while they were attacking the Autobots' political base. We got caged by Decepticon Efforts Ferrofluid and Smartmouth."

"The Decepticons have a ship?" Jess asked.

"Apparently, they do," Benjamin said, shrugging. "And guess what? I spotted Anne and Josh in here and they say that they've been here since the morning that we launched from Earth!"

Benjamin kicked at the wall, noticeably angry now.

"Of all the things that can slip Jack's mind while he's pawing around Teletran One's controls and frequency hopping, he couldn't have told us that our friends had been kidnapped by the Decepticons??" he shouted.

"Take it easy, Ben," Jess cautioned, "Maybe Jack had some emergency to deal with or something?"

"He couldn't have hopped in, called in a Code 047, and hop back out?" Benjamin growled, shooting a glare at Jess.

"A code what?" Jess asked.

"Code 047," Sam said matter-of-factly, "It's a missing person's code in the official Autobot handbook."

"When did Ben learn that?" Jess asked.

"I've been studying the Autobot Academy handbook for the past month in my spare time in hopes that I can actually become a Prime someday," Benjamin sighed. "But now I see how _dumb_ that idea is if I can't even keep track of my own people, _especially _some _human_ that belongs in some lunatic asylum somewhere…"

"Don't go to the Dark Side, Benny boy," Sam snickered quietly to himself.

Benjamin snarled in frustration as he turned and punched the force field caging them into the ship prison. A shockwave flicked out from the impact point, but Benjamin remained standing where he was. Suddenly, he noticed someone standing on the other side of the force field and looked up to find himself making eye contract with human Mextron's own red and silver eyes.

Seeing their mute, watching visitor, Jess and Sam sat up in surprise. Mextron and Benjamin stared at each other for several moments then a sly smirk crossed Mextron's face.

"Humph," Mextron began. "Megatron is being an idiot again, I see. Really, keeping prisoners only to execute them? He's tried this before in Transport City, remember? And everyone _knows_ how that turned out. I have some advice for you, Benjamin…"

Mextron raised a hand and began to gently tap his finger tips against Benjamin's, being separated only by the thin, but powerful purple force field.

"Find a way to break out of this prison quickly then proceed with what ever you were planning _before_ you were captured. I do not wish for our Efforts to tussle again."

He drew a silver dirk from with in the folds of the black jacket he was wearing and slid it through the force field easily. Benjamin took the dagger and looked at it, then back at Mextron in surprise.

"Call this a… gift of _goodwill_."

Before Benjamin could asked how Mextron had done the trick, Mextron turned and quickly strode up the prison cell hall and out of sight. Benjamin looked back at the dirk as Sam dropped down from the Transformer-sized bench and walked over to the force field.

"Goodwill gift?" Jess asked. "Did Mextron just offer to make an alliance with us?"

"I'm not sure," Benjamin muttered.

"Oh, well, what do you know," Sam chuckled, touching the force field, "Just a minimal cutting force will—_" Bzzzat! _"Whoop!"

The last few words resulted when the force field threw Sam back half way across the cell. Jess shouted Sam's name and dropped down from the bench to rush to his side. Sam sat up, smoking purple steam and looking a bit muddled, but his waved a hand dismissively. He felt his eyes move strangely and looked away quickly to keep Jess from seeing his eyes glow slightly with energy.

"I'm-I'm okay," he coughed. "But it reminds me of my ex-girlfriend, no kidding about that."

Benjamin looked at the dirk Mextron had given him and at the force field. Taking the dirk in a firm grip, he attempted to cut into the force field just as Mextron had, but the force field would have none of it and shoved him back.

"Hey," Sam grunted, getting to his feet with help of Jess, "How come it sends _me_ across the floor but hardly affects you?"

"I dunno," Benjamin said, shrugging, "I just brace. But what do I do with this knife now? And what the heck was Mextron doing with it, anyway? Where did he even _get_ it?"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Jess declared, "You have super strength!" She said, going over to Benjamin and jumping onto his back.

"Oh," Benjamin scoffed, reaching up to shove Jess off, "I do not—"

He stopped when he realized that he was holding his arm out and Jess was dangling from it with her feet curled up to her and off the ground. Curiously, he flung his arm up. Jess cried out as she was sent flying into the air. Benjamin watched her go up, then caught her in one hand when she came back down, catching her on her back as she was curled in a fetal position.

"Huh," he muttered, bouncing the surprised Jess in his hand. "What do you know? I _do_ have super strength."

Sam hummed calculatingly as he went over and picked up their dirk gift. He looked it over as Benjamin continued tossing Jess up in the air behind him and catching her. Sam made a show of examining the dirk, turning it over, tapping it, even biting it a little. He glanced behind him to see if the others even noticed, then a knowing, sly looked appeared in blue-visor-covered eyes.

"I believe that I've figured out how this blade is to help us," he announced, turning o his comrades.

Benjamin caught Jess, bride-style, when she came back down from a toss and they both looked over at Sam, grinning like fools at their new found entertainment.

"Oh, how, Sam?" Benjamin asked with a cheery grin.

"From what you've told me about how Anne and Josh got their Transformer forms," Sam explained. "A Transformer Effort has only to be stabbed with something metal in their Spark chamber, right beside their hearts, correct?"

"Yeah, so?" Jess asked as Benjamin set her down on her feet. Both of the Efforts' faces, though, had lost their cheery exterior as the idea began to form in their heads.

"Well, if Benjamin is strong enough to shake off our cell's force field in human form," Sam said, jerking a thumb at the purple wall of light. "Imagine what he could do in Transformer form—"

"We are _not_ stabbing Benjamin!" Jess shouted.

"Oh, come on! It'll be fun!" Sam exclaimed. "You know you wanna."

"NO!!" Benjamin and Sam both shouted.

"Sam, the idea just might work, I'll give you that," Benjamin said. "But let's save it as a last minute resort, okay? Now, come on, we have to find out how to get out of here."

"This _is_ the way out of here!" Sam shouted in frustration, "I mean it's not like the force field will just turn itself off!"

The force field turned itself off.

The trio of kids stared at the empty air where the force field had been for a long time. Jess began to snicker, but Sam waved the knife at her.

"Don't start with me, woman," he growled.

They jumped nervously when they heard metal feet approaching, but it was no Decepticon that came to their cell's door way, but Transformer Becky.

"Becky?" Benjamin asked, stepping forward, "How did you get here?"

"I stowed away on the ship when the Decepti-creeps took Anne and Josh," Becky explained as the same Transformer Efforts appeared behind her in their robot forms. "Once I was sure that the ship was mostly abandoned with everyone fighting outside, I came out of hiding and came to free you. Come on, we'll talk as we go."

She knelt and Jess and Benjamin got into her waiting hands. Sam tucked Mextron's dirk into his belt, frowning in confusion as Josh gently picked him up.

"Aren't you going to transform?" Sam asked.

"We don't know how to," Josh admitted as the party quickly exited the prison branch of the ship.

"Our dads didn't exactly have time to teach us while at war," Anne added.

"And you're a cat!" Sam exclaimed to Anne, "Come _on_, you have _got_ to have a humanoid alt form, if not a vehicle form!"

"You can travel in my stomach; does that count as a vehicle form?" Anne growled, her ears lying back as she bared her teeth at Sam.

"Fight Decepticons, not each other," Becky reminded. "Oh, by the way, Jess, there's a compartment in my wrist; open it. I made sure to pick it up when I saw it tossed on a table somewhere."

"Pointblank!" Jess cheered upon drawing the home-made weapon from Becky's wrist compartment. "_Now_ I'm ready to rock!"

They had sprinted through the ship and were now entering a large brig area. They could see a large door in the floor with a ramp leading down to the violent battle outside. Josh leaped up and activated his jets, leading the way out of the ship, past several confused Decepticons, and into battle.

"Hope so," Becky shouted over the roaring battle outside, "Because the battle is rolling!"

They were instantly set upon by a trio of Decepticons and the human-carriers set their charges on their shoulders so that their hands were free to fight with.

"We have to find an Autobot base to report to!" Benjamin shouted over the fighting.

"I'm on it!" Josh declared, rocketing into the sky. "Sam, hold on! Hang in there, guys, I'll be back in a jiffy!"


	21. Reprogrammed

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 21: Reprogrammed**

Burning asphalt, sweet energon, metallic laser burns, crashing metal, metal limbs flailing in and out of transforming sequences and enraged war cries; yeap, a typical day on Cybertron.

Ratchet actually _sighed_ tiredly as he ducked a Decepticon's kick before an Autobot tackled the Decepticon away and he resumed repairing his latest battlefield patient. It was a depressing thing to realize that what he defined as a "typical" day on Cybertron involved war and death. It must come from eons of the same schedule. He had almost forgotten about it living on Earth. Well, at least it could never get as violent as a Jerry Springer episode.

He heard the zipper sound of air being split beside him and turned to see Blurr standing beside him with a young femme in his arms.

"Hey, Ratchet, ?Thanks!"

Thus speaking, Blurr left, leaving a colored streak in the air and the femme beside Ratchet.

"Blurr!" Ratchet yelled.

He sighed in annoyance when the super fast messenger bot refused to come back and glared at the femme.

"What's your name, kid?" he growled.

"A-Alias, s-s-s-s-sir," the femme stuttered, her blue optics staring widely about at the carnage going on around them.

"Well, Alias," Ratchet said, packing away his tools and helping his barely-conscious patient to his feet, "Help me get this fellah back to ground base. I'll take this side, you take the other. And no lagging behind or I'll _leave_ you behind!"

The femme quickly took up the other side of the soldier and together she and Ratchet made their quick way through the enormous cruiser parking lot surrounding the political base that had become a battlefield. As they went, Autobots protected them and kept Decepticons from picking them off as easy targets.

"So, kid," Ratchet said, casting his optics about for both their safe base and any surprise attacking Decepticons, "What sort of situation were you in to have Blurr rescue you while he was delivering reports?"

"Oh, uh, S-Soundwave was t-trying to kidnap me," Alias replied nervously.

"_Decepticon_ Soundwave?" Ratchet asked with disbelief making his face a scowl, "What the slag does he want with a little femme?"

"Um…" Alias looked away, apparently thinking something over.

"Ooh, look! It's the Effort!" a too-familiar crazy German voice declared.

Ratchet and Alias stopped short as they looked up.

"What-!?" Ratchet exclaimed.

Random Blitzwing landed hard in front of them, stomping the paved ground. Alias gasped in awe as Blitzwing turned to Hot Head and stood at his full height.

"**Hand over the Effort or perish, stupid Autobot!"** Hot Head Blitzwing snarled.

"Effort--?" Ratchet began to ask. Suddenly, his optics flashed as he flicked his head to look at Alias. Alias looked away guiltily.

"But she's a Transformer!" Ratchet objected, looking at Blitzwing.

Cold replaced Hot Head to explain calmly, "An Effort has access to both human _and_ Transformer forms. Who is to say that they must be human by default? Now, I will take her now…"

Cold Blitzwing showered the trio with a spray of ice. Ratchet reached a hand in a vain objection while Alias moved away as quick as she could, but not fast enough. Blitzwing's ice completely froze Ratchet and his patient while freezing Alias' feet in a sheet of ice, leaving the rest of her free. Suddenly, Thundercracker crashed to the ground near by with an Autobot on top of him, fully intent on throttling the life out of him.

"Blitzwing," Thundercracker shouted. "Give me a hand here!"

_Crack_!

Ratchet's detached frozen out-reaching hand clunked into the head of the Autobot on top of Thundercracker, but did little to help him.

"Blitzwing!" Thundercracker snarled.

Random Blitzwing cackled in amusement at his own joke, but wrapped an arm around Alias' waist and easily pulled her from the ice binding her to the ground. Ratchet was left in his frozen position, staring at the broken off frozen limb in front of him. His optic twitched.

"Sorry, Cracker box boy," Blitzwing cackled, "But I got more important people to tend to!"

Laughing at his play of words on Thundercracker's name, Blitzwing rocketed into the air with Alias in his grip. A moment later, Skywarp came crashing through the air, slamming into Ratchet and his patient and breaking their icy prison before colliding with the Autobot on top of Thundercracker, knocking the Autobot out and saving Thundercracker.

"Someone tried the two-for-one knock out move?" Thundercracker asked Skywarp, sitting up.

"Yeap," Skywarp agreed.

"Kinda backfired, didn't it?"

"Yeap."

"We can use this to our advantage," Thundercracker muttered.

Ratchet, mean while, was quickly helping his patient across the battlefield as he called out to Optimus on the communications links.

"Optimus!" he exclaimed, "Blurr just brought me a femme by the name of Alias and she was taken by Blitzwing under the premise that she's an Effort!"

"_Is that possible?"_ Optimus asked.

"Well, she looked young enough for it," Ratchet replied, looking around as he finally came to a safe base made out of a nest of large brawny military craft. He handed his patient off as he went on, "And besides, an Effort doesn't _have_ to be human. I saw Blitzwing taking her to the ship."

"_Good job, Ratchet. Prowl, Bumblebee and I will see what we can do."_

Suddenly, a flash of red and white appeared near the _Reborn Nemesis_. Ratchet's optics widened and he snatched a pair of binoculars from a passing scout. Sure enough, in the distance, he could see a familiar red and white cat femme doing battle with a Decepticon along side a black and silver femme who had a familiar boy and girl on either shoulder.

"Anne!" Ratchet exclaimed.

Throwing the binoculars aside, Ratchet dropped down into ambulance form, in spite of missing a chunk of him self, and sped off with screeching tires.

**(AN: Did anyone catch the Transformers Animated reference?)**

- - - -

_He has me! He has me! He has me!_ Alias was thinking frantically as she kicked around in Blitzwing's grip. She wailed in terror and Random looked at her before turning into Hot Head.

"**Shut up!"** Hot Head Blitzwing snarled, **"I'm not going to hurt you!"**

"But you're gonna do something bad to me," Alias whimpered.

"**And how do **_**you**_** know, smarty pants?"** Blitzwing sneered.

"Universal Computer Program," Alias sniffled, "It lets me know anything that's in a computer."

Blitzwing turned to Cold and looked at Alias curiously, "Fascinating," he said. "That can become very useful for Lord Megatron."

"I don't wanna work for Megatron!" Alias shouted, kicking at Blitzwing.

Unfazed, Blitzwing landed with in the shadow of the _Reborn Nemesis_. He looked up to see Soundwave flying towards him from above. Starscream flew by over head, then began circling, listening to pre-given orders to protect the coming gathering more out of curiosity than actual obedience to Megatron.

"Ah," Blitzwing said, "Here comes Soundwave now. Don't worry; he'll be gentle with the re-programming."

Alias began to scream and kicked and struggle harder. Starscream grimaced in distaste while Blitzwing expressed a surprising amount of control by not reverting to Hot Head to express his displeasure. Rather, he dropped Alias to the ground and pinned her on her stomach there, pressing one of his own legs down to pin the femme while his hands held hers behind her back. Soundwave landed beside the sobbing femme and looked at Blitzwing.

"Privacy required?" Soundwave inquired.

"No time," Blitzwing grunted, "Lord Megatron gave specific orders to reprogram the Lost Effort the instant we found it."

Soundwave nodded and knelt, placing a hand over Alias' head. An electric charge of complicated programming began to build on Soundwave's hand.

"How ironic, isn't it?" Starscream sneered, landing by them. "That not only is Megatron putting so much effort in recruiting _little femmes_ into his army, but the same femme eluded Soundwave's grasp with the aide of the Autobots, only to be caught by us again because of their valiant efforts!"

"Starscream," Blitzwing stated, "Shut up."

Starscream scowled at Blitzwing, but turned his ruby optics in the direction of a certain band of Efforts fighting for survival near by.

"By the way," Starscream added, "Has anyone realized yet that our prisoners have escaped?"

Hot Head Blitzwing snarled at Starscream**, "Then go deal with them, slag head!"**

Starscream chuckled and shrugged, but went to do as he was told.

"Hello, miscreants!" Starscream shouted before slamming into Becky from behind.

Benjamin and Jess were flung from Becky's shoulders and tumbled to the ground below while Becky became locked in combat with Starscream. Snarling, Jess stood and began to help Becky, shooting at any part of Starscream she could. Pointblank kicked numerous times in her hands as the end of its large gun barrel flashed. The Tasmanian devil etched onto the gun barrel seemed to bound and leap. Benjamin, meanwhile, stood as he shook an impact with the pavement from his head. Something landed behind him and he spun around to face Mextron as he changed from robot to human form.

"Pity," Mextron sighed. "You haven't gained a proper mech form yet. Oh, well. Shall we do hand-to-hand combat for reputations' sakes?"

"Muscles loose, wary of surroundings…" Benjamin muttered, clenching his fists.

"I'll take that as a yes," Mextron stated, then jumped forward and swung a fist out. Benjamin ducked the fist and their fight began. "I had a proposition for you, Benjamin," he said. "I do not wish for our Efforts to fight each other. We are both parties of children born into a war that we never got a say in. I believe that we can help each other--"

"I will never help you," Benjamin snarled.

"You're very much the confident, high-and-mighty leader, aren't you? You don't even pause to listen to me. Very well, I shall wait until you are in a more… _social_ mood."

Anne, mean while, was looking around at the fight. Suddenly, she spotted Blitzwing and Soundwave doing something to a femme pinned on the ground. She didn't know what they were doing, but she defiantly knew that two men having a young female pinned down was _not_ a good thing and charged forward with a savage yowl. As she approached, she saw Soundwave's hand held over the femme's head. Snarling , she leaped forward and bit Soundwave's hand…and would come to regret it.

The energy that had been meant for the other teenage femme charged up Anne's fangs and directly into her processor mind, making her jerk with the excess energy. Soundwave reared back and flung his hand out as a growl of pain escaped him. His visor flashed and he shook his arm, knocking Anne from his hand and slamming her into the ground.

Ratchet saw this as he approached and shouted in fury as he transformed and leaped over Anne and towards Soundwave. Soundwave ducked and Ratchet collided into Blitzwing, knocking him from the femme, Alias. Alias took the chance to leap to her feet and run. Soundwave attempted to grab her as she escaped, but Optimus appeared from the battlefield and kicked him square in the face mask. Soundwave took the backward momentum to completely roll over and jump to his feet. Bumblebee and Prowl appeared from the crowd behind Optimus. Josh (with Sam on his shoulder) and Jazz appeared a moment later; Josh had managed to call in help, just like he had promised his friends.

"Frenzy, Rumble, Ravage: Eject," Soundwave ordered, pressing a button on his shoulder.

"Finally!" Rumble shouted as he and his fellow Cassetticons leaped from Soundwave and transformed. "Some action!"

Frenzy bared his palms and a savage scream sounded out from it, sending mechs for yards around into writhing, pained thrashings. While they were thus distracted, Rumble's arms turned into pile drivers and he spun them and jumped up before slamming them down into the ground, knocking everyone off their feet with the resulting earthquake.

Ravage leaped forward an instant later, going straight for Bumblebee. Ratchet and Blitzwing fought while Optimus was teamed with Soundwave. Frenzy fought Josh and Sam while Jazz fought Rumble. Prowl spotted Starscream attempting to kill Becky and, with a roar filled with fatherly protective love, dove onto Starscream. The only ones left alone were Jess and Anne. Spotting Anne still on the ground, unmoving, Jess ran over to Anne and began to pet the horse-sized femme feline's head in an attempt to wake her up.

"Anne, Anne," Jess whimpered, "Anne, please, come on, girl, don't die on me, Anne, oh, Primus, no, please…"

At that moment, Megatron spoke to all his Decepticons over their communications' link.

"_Decepticons: That's enough. Retreat to the ship; they got the message. Flickword, Solarflare: take the forces I assigned you and make your ways to the barren lands outside of the city. Find safe places to camp and wait for further orders."_

The Decepticons obediently broke from what ever fights they were doing, some not even taking the finishing move on their opponents: A display of how well Mextron had trained them. Large parties split off to the east and west, each led by either the clever orange and white Seeker or the moth-like mech. Their part in this tale has ended, but their stories would go on with the war as their legends would grow. The Decepticon Seekers and a certain hover camera made their way into the _Reborn Nemesis_ as it began to lift off. Taking a final punch at Ratchet, Blitzwing activated his jets, in spite of being on his back on the ground, and slid backwards on he ground. He pulled Starscream from Prowl's murderous grip and flew into the ship.

"Cassetticons: Return," Soundwave called.

Frenzy, Rumble, and Ravage obediently came back to Soundwave. Once loaded up, Soundwave turned and flew up into the _Reborn Nemesis_. At that moment, Anne opened her optics. Jess began to sigh in relief, but gasped in horror when she did not see Anne's familiar cerulean with in her large, almond-shaped optics, but a horrific bloody red.

Hissing shortly, Anne leaped up and snapped her jaws around the back of Jess's shirt before turning and running at the _Reborn Nemesis._

"Anne!" Ratchet called, reaching out with his remaining arm, "What are you doing?"

"Joining the winning side, old man!" Anne hissed around her grip around Jess.

She paused briefly to gather her haunches beneath her before leaping high up onto the boarding ramp of the Decepticon starship. She scrambled up it quickly as the loading door began to shut, barely managing to make it inside on time.

The entire ship flashed and there was an explosion of displaced air as the starship hyper jumped away to safer skies. The silence following it was eerie. The surviving Autobots began to pick out the injured from the dead and start lining up the dead bodies for counting, as was custom. But Ratchet was left sitting on his knees on the ground, staring into nothing in shock. He hardly even acknowledged the touch when Optimus and Bumblebee came up on either side of him and gently pulled him to his feet and escorted him back to base.

"What the hell just happened?" Becky asked, looking at Prowl as he helped her keep off a sprained ankle.

"I think… Anne just ditched us for the Decepticons," Josh said slowly.


	22. Kitty Kitty

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 22: Kitty Kitty**

"What the slag is she doing here!?" Starscream yelled.

"I agree with the imbecile, who the hell does she think she is?" Smartmouth agreed.

"Who are you calling 'imbecile', wench?" Starscream snapped, turning on Smartmouth.

"_You're_ the wench in this relationship!"

"Approval: Maximum," Skynet stated.

"Stay out of this," Starscream hissed to him.

"Maybe she's glitched?" Skywarp asked, clearly nervous about the situation as well.

"I think she's suffering some sort of schizophrenia from unstable Transformer-human compounds," Thundercracker suggested. "Like Blitzwing."

"That might be it," Blitzwing agreed. Ch-Chick! "Or maybe she got to some catnip and it made her slightly cuckoo! A cat who thinks that it's a bird? Haha, what a thought!"

"I admit that this is slightly beyond even me," Mextron agreed while scratching his head.

"What is going on in here?" Megatron demanded, entering the brig where the majority of the Decepticon Efforts and elite Decepticons were gathered still. Laserbeak was perched on his shoulder.

"My Lord," Soundwave greeted, stepping aside to let Megatron see what everyone was gathered around, "Autobot Effort Anne wishes to join the Decepticons: Illogical."

Megatron fixed his red optics on where Anne was sitting in the circle of Decepticons, purring with pleasure at all the attention. Beneath one paw she pinned a scared and confused Jess to the floor.

"Why would she do that?" Megatron asked.

"That's what we're trying to figure out, fool!" Starscream snarled.

"Don't talk back to me, Starscream!" Megatron snarled, swinging an arm out and knocking Starscream clear off his feet and into a wall.

Soundwave's chest compartment opened and Rumble peeked out of it. Soundwave looked down curiously at his passenger.

"Has anyone considered _asking_ the dame?" Rumble called.

Rumble was suddenly kicked out of the compartment with a shout by a kick from Frenzy. Frenzy crawled out a moment later onto Soundwave's shoulder even as his brother did a face-plant with the floor.

"You gotta let us out more, Soundwave," Frenzy grunted as he stretched.

Anne drew attention to herself by laughing aloud at the display of "brotherly compassion". Rumble, mean while, picked him self up and brushed himself off as he approached Anne. The Cassetticon appeared small enough to ride Anne like a horse.

"So, kid," Rumble said, "What the heck makes you want to join the Decepticons so badly so suddenly?"

"The Autobot's are _so_ annoying," Anne replied, taking her paw off of Jess to bathe it. "Don't do this, don't do that, take it easy on that idiot, that douche bag will learn his lesson, blah, blah, blah! I mean, I can't believe that I _liked_ being with them! Then I got a knock on the head that properly set my priorities straight, so, yeah, I'm running with you guys now. Hey, I even brought a peace present for ya to settle old bad blood!"

At the last bit, she spotted Jess trying to get to her feet and suddenly swatted Jess in Megatron's direction, making the girl squeak in surprise. Several of the Decepticons chuckled in amusement as Megatron knelt and picked Jess up between his thumb and forefinger. Jess struggled and tried to bring Pointblank up to shoot Megatron, but Skynet, who had been silently watching the entire thing, made a mere gesture with his hands and the gun flew from Jess' grip to his. Megatron smirked in approval then handed Jess to Blitzwing.

"Blitzwing, go put that in a proper cage; speak to Shockwave, he'll have something. Now as for you, young lady, what kind of name is _Anne_ for a _Decepticon?_ Your name shall be Scarletclaw from now on. A bit big for you, but you'll grow into it. Come on," he bade, picking the cat up in his arms, "Let's go get you a proper insignia."

Anne-now-Scarletclaw, while horse sized for humans, was the merely the size of a cat in Megatron's arms. She purred as Megatron turned and strode out of the room while Laserbeak, uncomfortable with perching on Megatron's shoulder while it was twisted to carry the cat, fluttered up and landed on Soundwave's shoulder.

"Looks like Megatron has a new favorite," Starscream sneered to the bird.

Laserbeak hissed at Starscream as his optics flashed. Thundercracker, Skywarp, Blitzwing, and Starscream left the room with the fun over. The rest of the Decepticon Efforts and Soundwave's Squad were left to their own devices and Mextron turned to Soundwave.

"Soundwave," Mextron said. "You were attempting to re-program the Effort, Alias, until Anne interfered, correct?"

"Affirmative," Soundwave replied.

"Perhaps Anne--Scarletclaw somehow caught the reprogramming that was meant for Alias and it affected her instead?" Mextron suggested.

"Hypothesis: Logical," Soundwave agreed, "Will suggest this idea to Megatron when he is not with Scarletclaw to prevent any accidental reversal of programming in Scarletclaw."

With that matter settled, he turned to Skynet.

"Inquiry: Have you found another Cassetticon?" Soundwave asked.

Skynet appeared to reach over his shoulder behind him. Mextron was standing behind him and saw Skynet's fingers tighten around something invisible that glowed a brief red and another item glowed bright blue before appearing as a pair of tapes; one brown and scarlet and the other icy blue.

"Yes," Skynet stated, tossing the two video tapes forward. "Rockpunch, Suspicion: Show yourselves."

The two Cassetticons transformed into robot form before they hit the floor. The newer icy blue one looked around, then grimaced when he spotted Skynet.

"Woha, hey, he's just a kid!" he exclaimed.

"Skynet has more power in his pinky than you do in an arm, new guy," Rockpunch chuckled.

"Welcome to the Decepticons," Smartmouth said. "Where'd he pick you up?"

"In an alley, running from the cops," Suspicion replied.

"Congratulations, Skynet," Mextron complimented.

"Approval: Maximum," Soundwave agreed.

- - - -

Normally, Megatron wouldn't behave so positively to a new recruit, especially one that had been an Autobot less than an hour before. But he understood that Scarletclaw had been a good friend of the other girl, Jess, for a good many years, and for her to so easily turn on her companion was something wonderful to behold. When he had been about to drop her off outside of a recreation room, ready to charge someone else with giving her a tour of the ship, she had spotted a turbo rat that had snuck aboard somehow. Megatron could not help but nod in satisfaction at what little was left of the rat when Scarletclaw was done with it. After that, he decided to give her a tour of the ship him self and took her to his private quarters.

Of course, Megatron's "private quarters" had little to nothing in it other than some wall-bound computers to allow him to communicate with who he wished, and a hard inclined table for a Transformer bed with a box of personal items tucked beneath it. He allowed Scarletclaw to hop onto his bed while he took up the box, setting it on the bed and opening it. With in were some repair parts, a handful of charred Autobot insignias ripped off from long-since dead opponents, and, unbelievably, some stickers in the shape of Decepticon insignias.

"Stickers?" Scarletclaw asked when she saw Megatron take out one of the stickers, "No offense, boss, but, uh, seriously… stickers?"

"Branding is more difficult than what most people believe, so only the best soldiers are actually branded," Megatron stated. "Transform, that way I may place your insignia where it may be seen."

Scarletclaw stared at him. Her tail flicked and she looked away, almost in embarrassment.

"Yeah, problem with that…" she began.

"Don't tell me that the Autobots didn't teach you to transform!" Megatron exclaimed, truly surprised and annoyed at this turn of events.

_Stupid Ratchet,_ he thought. _How do you expect your daughter to protect herself when she can't even transform like a decent femme?_

"Fine, we'll just place it on your arm and chest for now," Megatron sighed, applying the stickers even as he spoke. "What do you have in the way of weapons?"

Scarletclaw responded by baring her teeth and drawing out sharp claws.

"Fearful," Megatron said with sarcastic blandness. "You will need upgrades. Now, how does a hip-mounted rocket sound?"

"Slag you."

"Fair enough. Let's explore other options."

- - - -

An hour later, Megatron had turned Scarletclaw out to get to meet the Decepticons. Ravage found her bathing herself on top of an energon tank in a storage room.

"So," Ravage ventured, expressing his ability to speak, "You joined?"

"What's it look like, oldie?" Scarletclaw growled, flashing him her Decepticon-stickered flank.

"I may be older than you," Ravage said. "But I am not too old to teach."

"What're you on about, panther?" Scarletclaw yawned.

"Well, for one thing…"

Ravage suddenly bound forward, tackling Scarletclaw off of the tank and to the floor. He pinned her to the floor by her neck with his paw. The wide optics of Scarletclaw clearly expressed her mute surprise at the sudden attack.

"I know of seven ways to kill you in this position alone," Ravage said.

"You only need one way to kill," Scarletclaw growled.

To demonstrate, she lashed out at Ravage's underside with her hind legs while her front paws latched into his shoulders and she pulled herself up, biting Ravage on the neck. Ravage rolled over in an instinctive move to dislodge the smaller, more delicate feline, but she hung on as he turned over and over on the floor. Finally, Scarletclaw released Ravage and stepped aside to continue to bathe herself as if nothing had happened. Ravage quickly inspected himself and found a few scratches, but nothing worth seeing a medic about.

"Well done," he commented. "But you could do better."

"How?" Scarletclaw growled.

"Sometimes the objective is not to kill, but to capture. You will have to learn how to immobilize and carry in such a situation."

"Do tell," Scarletclaw purred.

Ravage was privately proud at getting the kitten to listen, but dared not mention it aloud. She was a feline as much as he was and he _knew _that the instant he tempted his good fortune by mentioning how Scarletclaw was listening to him, she would walk away in the name of pride.

"How about we go practice on a few of the Cassetticons?" Ravage suggested. "Frenzy is a prime target, but Rumble can be rather funny when incapacitated."

"Let's go find them," was Scarletclaw's agreement.

- - - -

An hour later Ferrofluid sat in human form on top of a pipe as he looked at the play fight going on between Scarletclaw and Ravage below. He looked up when Mextron approached.

"Ferrofluid, I have something of private importance to consol you about," Mextron said, taking a seat by Ferrofluid.

"What is it?" Ferrofluid asked.

"It's about the Efforts, both Autobots and Decepticons," Mextron began, watching Ravage pin Scarletclaw. "I don't know why, but something in side of me is completely against battling the Autobot Efforts. It's as if we are not _meant _to fight each other, but together. Isn't that a silly notion? They are Autobots and we are Decepticons; mortal enemies and as separate as fire and water."

"Actually, Mextron," Ferrofluid ventured, "We are on our own side. Do not forget that the only reason we Decepticon Efforts freed and joined our fathers' war was to escape the cruelties of Moriguchi and his forces. Our contract with them is purely that of survival, pre-set by blood, and nothing of political prattle or rivalries with the Autobots. If we _were _a political body, it might be possible for us to work on _both _sides of the war."

"Fat chance," Mextron chuckled. "But, still…Do you think… Do you think that it is possible for the Autobot and Decepticon Efforts to be… _allies_?"

"I… am not quite sure what you are getting at, sir," Ferrofluid said.

Ah, with the formalities! Mextron waved it away as he went on.

"It's happened plenty of times before: sub-factions making alliances under the larger bodies' nasal units. Perhaps, if the Autobot Efforts were willing to listen, we Efforts could all become one large party and secretly work together to end this war far quicker than what merely killing each other would ever do. Imagine! Sharing information with each other, we could carefully maneuver each others' armies around until energon hadn't been shed in so long that tempers began to cool enough for a peace treaty to be arranged. Am I being too unrealistic for possibilities?"

"Not at all, sir," Ferrofluid replied. "The logic is completely sound and, on top of that, it is already happening."

"Oh? Where?"

"Well, down there, for one thing," Ferrofluid said, waving a hand to indicate Scarletclaw and Ravage.

The two felines were taking a rest from their fighting and now laid next to each other as lions do on the savannah. Scarletclaw rolled over and batted at Ravage's paw playfully. Ravage had only to nip one of her large ears to make her sit upright again in a much calmer, more dignified exterior. After a minute, he began to bathe her as a parent feline does with their kitten.

"Ravage and Anne, or Scarletclaw, have already appeared to bond," Ferrofluid explained. "And did you notice how nervous Skynet got when Jess was captured? I believe he's also volunteered for several guard shifts with her. I believe that the two have been sweet on each other ever since they were alone for a time back in Transport City. Benjamin has already met Cartwheel and Shadowleap, and rumor has it that he rather likes them. And Blitzwing keeps claiming dibs on Josh as his little brother, which is rather terrifying, considering how unstable Blitzwing is.

"No, Mextron, you are not being unrealistic of dreaming of a peace cast between Efforts. We need only a private meeting between all Efforts to see if we can discuss such a peace."

"But how will that happen?" Mextron asked.

"With luck: something that we have a lot of."


	23. UCP

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 23: UCP**

"So Anne just totally _ditched us_ for the Decepticons?" Josh asked.

"A little quieter, Josh," Benjamin advised, glancing over his shoulder to where Bumblebee and Optimus were trying to get a reaction out of Ratchet, "I don't think Ratchet is taking the turn of events well."

The party still left on Cybertron had collected in a restaurant wisely abandoned by its owners. Ratchet was sitting at the bar, having raided it for its energon, and was now calmly pouring glass after glass of glowing purple energon straight from the bottle and downing each glass, pausing only to stare miserably into space. Optimus and Bumblebee were on either side of Ratchet, trying to get a reaction out of him, but so far none of their threats, promises, compliments, or insults would get him to even acknowledge their existence.

Ironhide was over at a machine that looked suspiciously like a juke box, either trying to open it or activate it, it was hard to tell. He was taking the news of Jess' kidnapping, showing that he had confidence in Jess' ability to take care of herself. Prowl and Jazz stood guard outside, occasionally receiving a report from Blurr as he zipped in now and then.

Josh had reverted to human mode and now sat on one of the round metal tables among Benjamin, Becky, and Sam. All but Sam were used to over-sized pro-Transformer furniture and seemed to be unaffected by their current surroundings. Sam, how ever, was continuously turning his head this way and that, looking at the shattered glass, singed furniture, and the pile of rubble left under a giant hole that had been blown into the roof. In the distance, the sound of warning sirens could still be heard, warning civilians to stay away or to go away if they were still with in the sirens' hearing distance. The occasional distant laser shot rang out as a left-behind Decepticon was spotted or someone panicked.

The femme that they had rescued from the Decepticons was sitting on the end of the bar, apparently trying to look quiet enough to be forgotten.

"I don't get it," Becky said, rubbing her head in bemusement, "I know Anne tends to be moody at times, but I know her: She would _never_ betray us like that. I mean, she even took Jess!"

"You never know," Sam added in, "Far as I know, being a mere human and all, Decepticons can do anything they want."

"They can _not_ just take our friends from us," Benjamin growled.

"Why not?" Sam asked, "They've already done it with Max and Jess."

"Max?" Bumblebee asked, turning to look at the kids. "What about Max?"

Benjamin's stomach clenched nervously when he realized that Bumblebee had not known of Max's fate yet. He began trying to figure out a way to break the news to him gently when Sam jumped right in an answered Bumblebee.

"Max got kidnapped by Breaker Laboratories when we tried arresting them a month ago," Sam stated. "We tracked them to somewhere on Cybertron, and we couldn't hook a ride, so Benny boy, Jess and me worked on a space cruiser to get us here. It crashed into the _Reborn Nemesis_, and we haven't found Max yet."

Benjamin blanched at Sam's bluntness. Bumblebee reared his head back as machinery in him hummed in disbelief and his optics clicked and flickered. Slowly, he turned around and reached under the bar. Finding a glass, he set it on the counter. Ratchet poured Bumblebee a glass of energon without looking and the two began drinking together. Optimus sighed and shook his head, realizing that he was not going to get the two children-less fathers to talk to him and instead, turned to the kids.

"Boy—"he began.

"Sam, man," Sam corrected.

"Sam," Optimus began again. "There are no Breaker Laboratory out posts on Cybertron. There never were. The Cybertronian Council thought it was a bit too soon in political relations to have permanent human out posts on Cybertron, and no science community would even care to allow them to stay for long periods of time as Breaker Labs had nothing of use to share with the Transformer science community."

"That don't mean jack," Sam snorted, "Them boys are criminals, remember? They could have easily snuck around any sensors or political bull and set up shop in some abandoned back ally or something somewhere."

"Optimus is right…"

Everyone turned to see that the teen-femme had spoken. She was hugging herself and rocking back and forth on the bar, looking scared, but she had the courage to speak again in spite of all the eyes on her.

"BLOOD never set foot on Cybertron; they see no point in it," she femme went on nervously.

"BLOOD," Benjamin asked. "Who's 'they'?"

"The girl's gone mental AWOL," Sam said, twirling a finger around his ear.

"Sweetie," Becky called, "You'll have to tell us what you know, honey."

But the femme's courage had failed and she was rocking back and forth quickly now, staring into nothingness as if her life would be sucked out by the people she saw around her. Optimus walked over to the girl and sat on a bar stool beside her. He ever so carefully picked her up and set her in his lap, hugging her close. Benjamin felt a dart of jealousy pierce him at seeing his father so close to another child. Optimus had never held him like that.

"Sweetie," Optimus said softly, "I know you're scared right now, but if you know anything that can help my friends and I defeat the Decepticons and get our missing children back, please tell us. No one is going to hurt you; we're all here to protect you."

It was a touching scene and even Bumblebee and Ratchet set down their energon to watch. Sam scowled and looked like he was about to interrupt, but Becky kept her eyes fixed on Optimus and their rescued teen-bot even as she drew her gun from its holster and aimed it at Sam's head briefly. Sam, understanding that Becky had taken up the role of the gun-wielding lass in Jess' absence, closed his mouth and Becky re-holstered the gun. The femme, mean while buried her face into Optimus' chest, behaving much like a little girl.

The girl spoke.

"My name is Alias," she began quietly. "I-I…"

"I' what, Alias?" Optimus asked.

"I'm a Transformer Effort," she said in a rush. Everyone exchanged surprised looks, but said nothing as Alias rushed on.

"Breaker Labs hasn't always been bad. The original scientists were really, really good and even let another Effort out into the world, a man called Balthazar. But then there were other Breaker Lab scientists who wanted to use their knowledge to take over the world, the scientists who make up BLOOD: Breaker Laboratories' Office of Domination. One night, the scientist taking care of me, Dr. Hoffman, realized what BLOOD was doing, what Breaker Labs was becoming, and managed to get us to one of the labs' starships, ready to blast off somewhere safe. But then the leader of BLOOD, Dr. Moriguchi, shot Hoffman and left him for dead! He didn't know I was hiding there so he left to go look for me."

"How did you get out of there, Alias?" Optimus asked, hugging the trembling girl tight. She was near tears.

"Hoffman survived," Alias sniffled. "He survived just long enough to fly us here, to Cybertron, where he had private labs set up. There, he put his mind in a Transformer body, but his memory was erased. I found an entire box of documents that Hoffman had created in event of his transmission to a Transformer body to formulate a robot identity. I showed him the documents and by the time he had read them all, his mind had taken what information it had and formulated an entire _life_ for him.

"He's been a scrap repairman called Dudbud ever since and I've been his daughter. I never could tell him about who he really was because… because he seemed so _happy_. And I was too scared…"

Alias cuddled against Optimus, whimpering sadly. Ratchet got up and walked over to Optimus and Alias. Stooping, he gently took Alias' face in his hands and turned it to himself.

"Alias," he asked quietly, "Do you know where our kids are?"

"Yeah," Alias sniffled, hugging Optimus. "I-I have a UCP: Universal Computer Program. It let's me know just about everything that's in a computer everywhere. I don't know how, but it works. Uh," She looked towards the ruined ceiling. "What's the name of your kids?"

"Max, Jess, and Anne," Ironhide spoke up. "And can you tell us what Megatron is up to while we're on the subject?"

Alias sighed and closed her optics, leaning her head against Optimus. After a moment, her optics snapped back open and were glowing a bright turquoise light. When she spoke, it wasn't in a little child's voice, but in a mature, monotone female voice.

**"Location of Autobot Effort Jess: Aboard the **_**Reborn Nemesis**_**, in prison cell three. Location of Effort Anne: Aboard the **_**Reborn Nemesis**_**, in Megatron's private quarters. Location of Effort Max: Unknown. Current actions of Megatron: Speaking with Effort Anne and planning to upgrade her into a stronger Decepticon—"**

"He better not," Ratchet snarled.

"What are Megatron's plans for the war?" Bumblebee asked.

"**Megatron's war plans include destroying Autobots,"** the computer-side of Alias replied, **"Destroying Earth for its resources, taking over Cybertron, and taking over the universe in that order. Sufficient data is lacking for more specific details."**

"It looks like she can get the gist of things, but still needs specific details," Prowl commented from over by the door.

"It's an imperfect power, but it still has its uses," Optimus stated. To Alias, "You can power down now, little one."

The glow disappeared from Alias' optics and she slumped, exhausted, against Optimus.

"So… now what?" Sam asked. "I mean, what do we do now that we know that Breaker Labs totally duped us?"

"Go after our kids," Ratchet stated.

"Kick some Breaker Lab human skid plate," Bumblebee suggested.

"I don't really care one way or the other," Ironhide said, "Just as long as I get my little girl back. Hey, Josh, Becky, power up, would ya? It's high time you got some real weaponry on your frames. These old juke boxes are made of the same stuff in a majority of Transformer weapons…"

As he spoke, he finally managed to rip the juke-box's top off and pulled several mechanical parts from with in it while behind him, Josh and Becky powered up into Transformer form. Prowl and Jazz, though, immediately left their posts at the door way to object.

"Ironhide," Prowl stated, "You don't have any medical knowledge and Becky doesn't' need any weapons on her."

"Do you want her to fight from a distance or go straight into hand-to-hand, in-your-face combat?" Ironhide snapped at Prowl. "We're at war and these kids need something if they're gonna survive at war!"

"I'm more concerned about you mis-wiring something and pulling a Wheeljack on us," Jazz stated, "And making my kid blow up."

"Which is why _he_ is gonna install the upgrades," Ironhide stated, pointing a length of tube at Ratchet.

"Wouldn't be the first time I made kids weapons of mass destruction," Ratchet admitted, "Like Sideswipe—"

As Ironhide, Prowl, Jazz and Ratchet began to argue, Bumblebee went over and quietly spoke with Optimus and the tired Alias. Josh and Becky began arguing for the upgrades while Benjamin tried restoring order. In that time, Sam dropped off the enormous table he and Benjamin were sitting on and hid in the shadows under a table near the hole in the roof. Once he was sure that he had privacy, he pulled a dark purple, round communicator device from his pocket and pressed a speed dial button on it.

"_Swindle here, your favorite weapons dealer in the universe, how may I help you?"_ the familiar robot's voice on the other end asked.

"No more disguising?" Sam asked.

"_I've decided that the time has come to cast aside such annoying facades and masquerades and let my old customers know that I'm back in business," _Swindle replied, his enormous grin passing through the air waves in his voice. _"So, how goes the mission, Sammy boy?"_

"Some good news and bad news, boss bot," Sam replied. "Good news: Anne went AWOL for the Decepticons and took Jess with her, so they're out of the picture. Bad news: We found this Autobot Effort gal called Alias. Girl's a teen-bot but acts like a freaking little kid and get this; she has a Universal Computer Program that let's her know what's up and where. Kind of like a super Google. She's already located Jess and Anne and now I'm concerned about what if she finds out my true colors, ya know?"

"_Hmm, that _is_ a problem,"_ Swindle agreed. _"I got some good and bad news down here, too. Good news: I caught Cliffjumper and Hound and have them in my back garage, waiting for, ah, _processing_ for parts. Bad news: the invasive human, the one that's Wheeljack's apprentice, is hacking in my systems left and right from the __Ark__ trying to find out what I know. I had to reprogram my computer to evade him! Autobots are going to come for me soon, but I got a card or two up my sleeve yet. But I think I know of a way we can solve _both_ our problems. Listen…"_

When Optimus had finished discussing something with Bumblebee, he nodded and Bumblebee departed, exiting the restaurant and transforming into punch buggy form before driving off. Optimus sat Alias at the bar and stood.

"Autobots!" he declared loudly.

Everyone fell silent and turned to Optimus, summoned by his commanding tone.

"Our main goal now is to retrieve Max, Jess, and Anne from their captors," Optimus said. "Hence we will follow the _Reborn Nemesis_, recapture Jess and Anne, then go to Earth and rescue Max from Breaker Labs, where ever he may be.

"Prowl, Jazz; I know you're worried about upgrading Josh and Becky, but Ironhide is right and they need to have proper weapons to defend themselves. They're not patrolling any more. Ratchet; you can help Ironhide. And with her consent, we'll be taking Alias with us to help guide us to the kids, as well as protect her from any more kidnapping attempts by the Decepticons. Bumblebee's gone to inform Alias' guardian of these developments."

"But about his memory—"Prowl began.

"It is not of our concern," Optimus stated. "Bumblebee will meet us at the main Autobot headquarters, where we will have a starship is waiting, when he is done with Alias' guardian. Autobots…"

"I love it when he does this," Josh muttered.

"Transform and roll out!" Optimus declared.

Ironhide quickly tossed the parts he had looted from the jukebox machine before transforming, opening his trunk area and leaning forward to catch the parts. Following the example was Prowl, Jazz, Ratchet, Optimus, and Alias. Josh's boots activated and he zipped up into the air while Becky turned back into a human and boarded Prowl. Benjamin got into Optimus, pausing for Sam when the human came bolting out from behind a pile of rubble.

"What were you doing?" Benjamin asked, settling into the driver's seat as Optimus drove, leading the way out of the restaurant.

"Just checking something out," Sam replied innocently.

- - - -

"Sir," Dr. Rosie called, "The Autobot elites have been released and the Decepticons have brought their war back to Cybertron. We have reason to believe that the Autobots are coming to rescue Bumblebee's Effort, and that they have an Effort with the ability to see into multiple computer data banks."

Moriguchi looked up from where he was watching a pair of large, purple and blue snails slither across the ceiling of their glass box, releasing a steady stream of steam behind them as their acidic slime melted the glass. Dr. Rosie and Dr. Star were twins and identical in their emotionless mental make up. Both had straight brown hair reaching their ears with a flat, un-stylized hair line. Rosie had respect for Moriguchi, and was an expert in techno-organic life. Her brother, Star, put Moriguchi on divine levels of greatness for reasons that escaped even Moriguchi, and was an expert in organic-life. Other than Moriguchi himself, they were the final two surviving members of BLOOD.

Moriguchi stood, staring at them as he thought. He turned his attention back to his snails as he set a pair of plastic goggles over his eyes before opening the glass box. He carefully picked the snails up in either rubber-gloved hand.

"Well," he sighed, "I certainly hope that their reunion will be a memorable one. Oh, and by the way, Star, your acidic snails are a wonderful success. Their acid slime can melt the face off of a human, would you like to see?"

A few minutes later, Moriguchi entered a control room near by in the laboratories, where there was a team of workers controlling the laboratory and its booby traps. Many looked up when they noticed that Moriguchi had some bloody hand prints on his lab coat, but had learned never to question him.

"Our enemies are becoming a bit too knowledgeable for their own good," he said, "Let's see if we can dumb them down a bit. Launch cyber lock out code 46. Oh, and can someone send the janitor over to the snail lab? Doctors Rosie and Star left behind quite a mess before punching out."


	24. Cyber Lock Down

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 24: Cyber Lock Down**

Jess was miserable.

Pointblank been taken from her and she had been given to the Decepticons _by Anne_, her own friend, a girl who was a sister to her. So not only was she weaponless and a mere human-bodied Effort, but she was truly all alone on the _Reborn Nemesis_ with one of her own ex-friends having put her there. Jess was a girl who would spill profanities, not tears, but sitting in a cage on an office's desk aboard the Decepticon starship for the second time in one day with no one to comfort or distract her, she was getting pretty close to crying.

_Stop thinking that way, Jess,_ she thought to herself, placing her head between her knees as she sat on the floor of the cage. _You are Autobot Effort Jess, daughter of Ironhide, gun gal of the Autobots, and you __will__ get through this, damnit!_

"_Yes, you will…"_

Gasping, Jess snapped her head up and saw Skynet standing on the other side of the purple force field of her cell. Even though the Decepticon insignia was stamped in a proud red on his arm, what Jess remembered was sitting on a pile of grain sacks in a warehouse in a now-sunken city, with sea salt and battle smoke drifting on the breeze: A short memory from long ago, but sweet, none the less.

"Skynet!" she hissed, scrambling to her feet and going over to the force field-covered bars. "What are you doing here?"

Skynet placed a hand over the force field, short of touching it where it would shake him off. Jess allowed her own hand to rise up and hover just across the force field wall from Skynet's hand.

"I came to see how you were doing," Skynet said.

"How I am _doing_?" Jess exclaimed, dropping her hand. "How do you _think_ I'm feeling? I blasted off from Earth on a hand-me-down space cruiser with intentions of rescuing a friend of mine, crash right into the Decepticon's war ship, get captured, get out, then get captured again by _my own friend_ when she switches sides! Now I'm all alone on a Decepticon war ship with no weapon, no help, no one to trust, and am doomed to die! How do you _think_ I'm dong? I'm all alone!"

"You have me," Skynet ventured.

He reached out, as if to stroke Jess' cheek, even though they were separated, and Jess' breath froze when she felt the same soft touch on her cheek. The touch was filled with love and caring and she had to blink to hold back tears of relief.

"Oh, Skynet," she whimpered, sitting down on the floor. "I wish things were simple again. I wish everyone was back in Transport City, with Max flying down high roads, Josh flirting with Becky, Anne sending patients home with more scratches than what they came in with, Jack blowing stuff up with Wheeljack, and Benjamin in military school while I target practiced with everything in sight. Now Anne's a Decepticon, Max is missing, I don't even _know_ was Jack and MJ are doing and—and—"She seized her head as she lowered it. "Why can't it just be simple, with everyone together and knowing what to do?"

Skynet could relate. He remembered a time where he and his fellow Decepticon Efforts were never apart and it was simple: Them against the rest of the world. But then things became serious after they released their fathers and now Skynet was lucky if he even ever saw Ferrofluid out side of his lab and half the time he didn't know what everyone else was doing. He may be bland externally, but inside, he had just as much emotion as the next person.

He squeezed his hand and telepathically touched Jess' hand so that she felt like someone was hugging her hand. Sniffing, she brought the squeezed hand to her face and brushed it against her face, enjoying the imaginary feel of a hand with in her own. Skynet almost felt awful for such manipulation; it was a cheap imitation of the real thing.

_Don't worry, boss,_ Rockpunch said in Skynet's head, away from Jess' attention, _you guys will work something out. Hey! Maybe you can invite her into the Decepticons!_

_And run the risk of letting an Autobot dame mess things up?_ Suspicion growled, _not a chance!_

_No, I could never ask her of that,_ Skynet thought. _I would never ask her to leave her family…_

At that moment, the ear piece in Skynet's ear activated, summoning Ferrofluid's voice to his ear.

"_Skynet,"_ Ferrofluid called. _"Meet in control pilot room, ASAP. We're having some technical difficulties up here…"_

"Order: Acknowledged," Skynet replied. To Jess, he said, "I promise you that no one will hurt you while I am here. I must go now, but I will be watching over you. Rockpunch: Eject."

Rockpunch's video tape form flew from the air behind Skynet and he transformed, landing in front of the cage, facing Skynet.

"Stay here and watch over Jess," Skynet ordered. "If anyone gives her hassle, chase them off, or call for me. You know how."

"Yes, sir!" Rockpunch said with a smart salute.

Sending a final comforting telepathic wave to Jess, Skynet turned and left the prison branch of the ship.

- - - -

"Slag, slag, slag," one of the pilots was muttering while he and his fellow mechs' fingers flew across their control boards.

Cartwheel and Shadowleap were sitting on top of one of the control boards of the main pilot room, watching as the pilots frantically tried to enter in the proper orders to make the ship's panicking sirens become silent. Suddenly, Shockwave, robot-form Ferrofluid, and Soundwave burst into the pilot room. Shockwave seized the main pilot's shoulder, spinning him around and shoving him into the wall. It was the only thing showing his true anger inside while his voice remained level, if not somewhat annoyed.

"What is so important that you insist on calling me away from my studies?" Shockwave demanded. "Can't you do _one_ thing without supervision?"

"Sir, the ship's computers have locked us out, sir!" the leader pilot replied shakily. "It-it just kicked us out!"

"None of the computers will respond to any of our commands, sir," another pilot added.

Shockwave pulled the previous speaking pilot from his chair and began to tap at the keyboard.

"Let me see this," Shockwave growled.

Shockwave's commands did not silence the sirens complaining about the lack of control. He looked over at Soundwave and Ferrofluid. Understanding, the other two technology-savvy bots took over two other computers, leaving two more controlled by the actual pilot team. A few minutes later, Megatron, with Scarletclaw on his heels, and robot-formed Mextron also entered the pilot room, summoned there by the annoying sirens. As Megatron began verbally abusing the pilot team for their lack of ability to handle themselves, Mextron turned his attention to the still watching and mute Shadowleap and Cartwheel.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

"A virus got our computers," Shadowleap replied. "No one can access them now; not even the science 'bots."

Mextron turned to Ferrofluid.

"Ferrofluid, call Skynet up here," he ordered. "This is his specialty."

"Already called, sir," Ferrofluid replied. "He should be here any minute."

"Skynet: Reporting."

Mextron turned, as did the two little Efforts, and saw Skynet standing on the counsel right beside the youngest Efforts.

"Ooh, you're good," Shadowleap complimented.

"Tee hee," Cartwheel giggled as Skynet dropped down onto the control board. "Skynet's starting to be a ninja!"

"Order: Back off," Skynet told the pilot of the counsel he was standing on.

Having seen Skynet in action, the pilot held his hands up innocently as he backed off. Skynet knelt on the enormous Transformer-sized computer board and placed both gloved hands on it, splaying the blue, white-knuckled gloves.

"Mextron," Megatron growled, appearing beside the grey, bird-winged Decepticon, "I want you to call Skynet—oh, you already called him."

"Ferrofluid did, actually," Mextron corrected. "He's a very capable second-in-command." He grimaced as he looked at Scarletclaw. _"Must_ you bring that _thing_ with you so freely? Do not forget that she still bares the Autobot insignia."

Scarletclaw hissed at Mextron and Megatron crossed his arms with a small smirk.

"Maybe we share the same opinion on certain mechs?" Megatron inquired.

Mextron harrumphed in acknowledgement and turned away to watch Skynet.

Megatron and Mextron, in spite of being father and son, still very much disliked each other as they were always locked in a silent, personal alpha-male combat. The last time it had actually come to blows was back when Megatron had sent Mextron to his own death in the hands of Breaker Laboratories in the Sahara Desert, and even then, only Mextron swung a sole punch to Megatron's face. On that day, not only did Mextron become the first Effort ever to gain his trans-species alt-mode, but he and Megatron began an official sort of rivalry and Megatron was forced to accept the fact that killing his own son would not be as easy as he thought, lest he killed himself in the process.

Inside Skynet's own mind, darkness became lined in the many fuzzy, static-strewn frame works of window after window of files that made up the war ship's computer systems. He examined all the windows as he passed by them, seeing that all were in perfect working order, but some sort of virus was keeping them from actually working. Spotting the main stream of data where the virus was coming in from, Skynet followed the stream at inhumane fast speeds, all the way back to its source. Once located, he easily ripped the data stream apart. He waited a moment and, sure enough, the virus stream merely reformed itself. He kept mentally destroying the virus data stream as he spoke in the real world.

"Diagnosis:" He explained aloud while the whinny sirens muted. "A virus that paralyzes all major computers of a level seven advancement and above has infected the ships' computers via major communication waves."

"A cyber lock out virus?" Ferrofluid asked, stroking his chin. "Fascinating!"

Mextron pulled Ferrofluid's hand down in a silent request to not act like a cheesy super villain with the chin rubbing.

"Threat has been fixed," Skynet went on, "Computers: Working. Problem: I must stay here and continue to break up the virus' data stream, as it adapts to everything, even destruction."

"Who is it coming from?" Megatron inquired.

"Wouldn't be surprised if it was someone like Wheeljack," Scarletclaw growled. "He's a smart one, he is; A hopeless dope, but a smart one."

"Virus's origin: Russia," Skynet answered before listing off a series of coordinates on Earth.

"Sir," the remaining pilot at his computer called, "I have satellite images picturing those coordinates' area and, sir; all that there is there is an abandoned salt mine."

"Have you tried looking _under_ the ground, you idiot?" Scarletclaw sighed.

The pilot blanched in a mixture of surprise and insult, but Shockwave was ahead of him and was easily and stealthily hacking into Transformer satellites over the Earth and examining the area of investigation with super X-ray scanning technology. He examined the black and white negative images that came back to him on screen for but a moment before speaking.

"My Lord," Shockwave reported, "There appears to be signs of intelligent life with in and under the so-called 'salt mine'; there are many strong, living traces of electrical flow and equipment down there. Judging by the energy flow, it's all human technology."

"Breaker Laboratories," Megatron growled. "It must be; they are the only human force able to create such a virus."

"Who cares?" Scarletclaw asked, doing her best shrug in her feline form. "Let's just go back to Cybertron and kill some Autobot wussies!"

"No," Megatron told her, "Who ever is casting out a virus powerful enough to handicap our computers is a force to be reckoned with."

"So, what, we're gonna call off victory over Cybertron, haul aft all the way to some stinky old cave with a huge, kick-aft war ship just to exterminate _humans_??" Scarletclaw whined.

"Do not forget, Scarletclaw," Megatron cautioned, "That it was the _humans_ who nearly defeated me, and it was the _humans_ who created _you_. They are a bigger threat than what should be acceptable. Shockwave, Soundwave: Stay here and keep the war effort going. Ferrofluid; go prepare a large cruiser for launch. Mextron; you and all your Efforts will come with the Seekers and my self to deal with these meddlers."

"Do I get to come, too?" Scarletclaw asked. She sat up on her haunches and braced a dainty paw against Megatron's leg while her ears dropped back and her eyes widened, creating quite the perfect kitten effect. Megatron looked down at her ruby-red optics and an idea appeared in his own red optics, but it was not spurned by the adorable kitten look; it was spurned by a much darker, private thought process.

"Yes," Megatron said, making many people exchange confused glances. "If these meddlers have Autobot allies and sympathizers, it would do well to have a trick like you lower their guard."

"Alright," Scarletclaw yipped, "I get to kick aft!"

"But first," Megatron added, seizing her up roughly by the scruff of her neck and presenting her to Shockwave. "Shockwave; upgrade her with proper weapons and upload a transformation knowledge file into her processor," he ordered. "Then have Ravage teach her some feline tricks of warfare. It's disgusting to deal with such a weak creature. Have her ready by tomorrow evening; that is the bare maximum that we will be on this ship before setting out."

"As you wish, My Lord," Shockwave sighed, taking Scarletclaw and leaving the room.

In Mextron's head, Skynet spoke, his voice fading in and out as his concentration was dedicated to shaking off the virus from their computers.

_Be wary, Mextron,_ Skynet warned._ He has something planned, but has his mind guarded too well for me to read._

_That's some pretty impressive guarding,_ Mextron replied. Aloud, he said to Megatron, "Sir, when you tell me to bring _all_ my Efforts, do you truly mean _all_, including Skynet, Blitzwing, and the younger two, Shadowleap and Cartwheel?"

"Yes, what else do I mean by 'all'?" Megatron sneered.

"Sir," Mextron replied, feeling his temper rising, "Skynet is needed to protect the computers and the youngest two are not meant for direct combat."

"Soundwave can battle the virus himself and as for the younger two…" Megatron narrowed his optics as they blazed devilishly. "If you fear for their safety, then shoot them now and don't waste my time mothering them."

There was a shocked moment of silence. The pilots shifted from foot to foot nervously, exchanging looks. Ferrofluid flexed his claws as his antennae twitched; the only things suggesting his readiness to pounce, while Cartwheel and Shadowleap cowered together fearfully. Skynet and Soundwave did not move. Mextron clenched his fists tight and his wings shuddered as he glared into Megatron's optics and his rage roared beneath him. He was ready to slam his fist into Megatron's face again, but he knew that this was what he wanted and instead, took a deep breath, knowing full well that what might come out would _not_ be very good to say in front of the little ones.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Everyone spun around to see Starscream standing in the doorway of the chamber with his arms crossed across his chest and a sly, satisfied smirk across his face.

"No," Mextron replied, tightly corking his temper. To his Efforts; "Shadowleap, Cartwheel; go get ready for a long, hard mission. Everyone, get their rest. I'll go inform Smartmouth of these… _developments._"

"What do you want, Starscream?" Megatron growled to the Seeker as Mextron brushed past Starscream and left.

"Oh, nothing, My Lord," Starscream teased before leaving. "Just watching…"

- - - -

Jack gritted his teeth as his fingers flew across the keyboard of Teletran One, entering in command after command and code after code. On the alien computer's enormous screens, lists of numbers flashed up, but never changed. Random, attention-begging beeps and buzzes frequently emitted from the computer around him. Finally, he shouted in frustration, slamming his fists on the empty space around the keyboard and turned away, placing a hand to the Blue Tooth phone set in his ear.

"It's no good, Wheeljack," he said, "I've tried everything I know and this damn cage virus or what ever it is had Teletran One completely on lock down; she isn't going to send so much as a 1990-format e-mail out any time soon."

"_What is going on here?"_ Wheeljack muttered on his end of the line all the way in Europe, where he was watching some humans deal with the same style of technological complications on their lap top. _"Practically all the actual computers won't work! Flight control computers, lap tops, hand-held, Transformer; all won't work. It's like we've been locked out of our own computer systems by some lock down virus. How did this happen?"_

"If I knew that, don't you think that I would have fixed it by now?" Jack asked with no anger to Wheeljack. Growling, he kicked at a near by walled up computer that began to beep loudly.

"Shut up!" he snarled at the wall before turning his attention back to Wheeljack.

"And on top of this _cyber lock down_," he went on, "I've completely lost contact with Benjamin's party. They've been finishing up their touches on some starship or another to rescue Max from Breaker Lab guys on Cybertron, but Benjamin hasn't dialed in for the morning or evening report yet. I _would_ track down the signals of Cliffjumper or Hound, their current Autobot partners, but without Teletran One, I can't even determine if the _headquarters_ is secure!"

"_Benjamin's party is missing? Oh, slag, we got some people missing over here: One of my gadgets kinda, uh, handed Anne over to the Decepticons. Josh chased after her and got caught and we haven't seen Becky anywhere."_

"So all the Autobot Efforts are missing except MJ, who's too busy being the _super taxi_ with Skyfire to do anything, and technically, MJ isn't even an Effort," Jack groaned, rubbing his face. "I'm starting to think I'm too young for this."

"_Yeah, you are, but are you smart enough for it?" _Wheeljack asked.

Jack opened his mouth, preparing to reply a negative answer to Wheeljack's rhetorical question, when an epiphany hit him. His eyes widened and he froze as an idea dawned on him. Sitting up, he stood and began to type at a rapid pace across the keyboard.

"Smart—Smart Phone—phone—communications—bingo!" Jack exclaimed.

"_Sounds like you have an idea, kid,"_ Wheeljack said, a smile growing under his face mask.

"I did this back in Transport City," Jack said, pulling a hand-held computer phone from his pocket. "I've been somewhat phobic of using it again, because it wound up shutting down our defenses and inviting the Decepticons into the city. But we _need_ to get the computers back on line before the Decepticons or who ever locked us out winds up stealing all our efficient data."

Jack pulled the rest of the computer care packet from an inside pocket in his jacket and had his hand-held computer plugged into Teletran One, ready to pull the device out again if it went crazy, like what had happened in Transport City, a long time ago…

"_Are you sure that'll work, Jack?"_ Wheeljack asked. _"The Transport City computers were low-key items; pure use-and-forget things. Teletran One was built by a whole __team__ of Cybertron's top scientists as a super battle computer. I don't think your hand-held is going to do much good; it's __eons__ behind Teletran One."_

"You remember the tale of the lion and the mouse, Wheeljack?" Jack asked as he began to type orders into Teletran One and his hand-held computer.

"_The __what__ and the __what__?"_

"Once there was a lion that thought it was the mightiest beast in the jungle," Jack began. "One day he caught a little mouse. The mouse begged for its life and the lion, deciding that the mouse was not worth eating, released the mouse and let it live. A little while later, the lion was caught in a hunter's net trap and could not get out. He thought that he would die, but lo and behold, the mouse whose life he had spared appeared and used his tiny, sharp teeth to nibble the ropes apart, thus freeing the lion and saving his life. In gratitude, the lion became the mouse's friend."

"_And you are telling me a human story about organic animals defying the order of the food chain and mental capacity because…?"_

"The moral of the story is that all creatures are powerful and useful in their own way, no matter how small and meek," Jack explained, tapping a final key. "The same principle can apply to computers. So if I can use my hand held's plug in abilities to create a door way in this cyber block in Teletran One's programming…"

A single zip of static crossed Teletran One's enormous computer screen and as one, all the panicking beeps silenced themselves as the enormous super computer's screen erased the numbers dashing across it, revealing a normal desk top.

"**Thank you, Jack Turbine,"** Teletran One stated with the barest note of true gratitude in its electronic voice. **"It is good to work again."**

"_Okay, I'll see about getting a small computer and doing the same over here," _Wheeljack said. _"But, hey, wait a moment, Teletran One said thanks? The feminine voice system was a joke! It can't be sentient… can it?"_

"**In coming communication request from Optimus Prime,"** Teletran One said, **"Accept?"**

"Yes, please," Jack sighed in relief.

Optimus Prime's image appeared on screen while Jack plugged his Blue Tooth into Teletran One, thus allowing Wheeljack to join the conversation as well.

"_Jack Turbine; it's good to see you,"_ Optimus greeted.

"As it is for me to see you, Mr. Optimus, sir," Jack replied. "Wheeljack and I just finished vanquishing a cyber lock down virus emitting from an unknown source that locked us out of our own computers."

"_It was all Li'le Jack,"_ Wheeljack assured. _"Oh, bad news: Benjamin's party is missing—"_

"We know," Optimus stated, then proceeded to update the two Jacks as to the events on Cybertron and the Jacks, in turn, reported to Optimus on recent events.

"Anne joined the Decepticons??" Jack asked, "That's—no way!"

"_I'm afraid it is true," _Optimus sighed. _"The Decepticons appear to be coming to Earth, and we will follow them there. We will need back up, of course, to recover Jess and, if difficulties arise and it's not some elaborate spy plan, capture Anne. Now, due to the fact that the ship the others and I are currently in is merely on loan, we will need more permanent transportation needs upon arriving to Earth._

"_Wheeljack: Call Skyfire and, with my permission and orders as a Prime, have him drop everything he is doing to come pick up yourself and the Lamborghini Twins—"_

There were complaints off screen.

"_And meet us at the coordinates I am sending you now. Jack; can you determine who created the cyber lock down and where Cliffjumper and Hound are?"_

"Trigonometry, super cyber skills, Sherlock Homes- style detective and deduction skills, Indiana Jones wit, and the mother of all super computers," Jack grinned as he patted Teletran One, "As long as I keep my little hand-held sending out the signals to counter act any more cyber lock downs, I'm green-lit for a night-time spy plane flight in the digital world."

"_That's a yes,"_ Wheeljack whispered to Optimus.

"_Very well, then," _Optimus stated, _"Until we speak again: Good luck."_

With two sharp clicks, Wheeljack and Optimus broke the connections.

"**Wheeljack has disconnected the call. Optimus Prime has disconnected the call."** Teletran One stated. **"Shall we begin our 'detective work', Master Turbine?"**_  
_"Sure thing, Teletran," Jack replied. A beep sounded out, causing him to glance at his hand held computer and saw a new alert message on it.

"Crap," he muttered, seizing up the computer and typing into it. "Who ever made this virus is _smart_: the virus morphs around what ever defense we put up. You start tracking it down while I keep it busy and defend our cyber-land."

"**Orders accepted,"** Teletran One replied. **"Scanning of all surrounding external bases for source of virus…"**

- - - -

"Sir!" one of the Neo-Nazis said, saluting General Walter. "Our computers have stopped working and communications have come to a halt, sir!"

To this, Willium rolled his eyes. This was the sixteenth time he had been reported to thus and he gave the messenger the same reply as he had the other messengers.

"Then don't _use _a computer, dolt," he snapped. "Repair any radio towers near you, and use the old fashioned hand held and truckers' radios to contact the other bases. If it's a private message, than deliver it orally; get on a motorcycle, a jeep, a jet, hell, get on a _horse _for all I care, but keep this army in touch with itself, damnit! The last thing we need is to lose just because we couldn't find our own guns with two hands and a flashlight, now go! Go!"

The messenger saluted and sprinted off. Willium smirked and nodded to himself, satisfied with this display of power, before turning back to the map-covered table out lining his forces. Toy tanks, jets, and men were on the table to outline the army's placement. The squad leaders he had assembled stood patiently awaiting their orders. Just as Willium was about to get back to explaining the plan, another person came up behind him and saluted.

"Sir! Our communications computers have ceased to work. What shall we do?"

"_Ask one of the other men!!"_ Willium shouted, throwing a toy tank at the messenger.

- - - -

MJ helped the last of the injured United Nations soldiers out of Skyfire as Skyfire's jets once again powered up. Scarcely had he ushered the last bloodied soldier off the jet before the Autobot was once more lifting up, shutting the bay door and rising up into the air. MJ turned around and grimaced at all the blood and mud that stained the benches and floor of the large cargo area.

"Primus, dad, we have to take a break and clean you up sometime," Michelangelo told his adopted father.

A human-sized hologram of Skyfire glowed into existence sitting on one of the benches lining the wall, looking at some discarded soiled bandages.

"I think we can manage a quick rinse before we pick up Wheeljack and the twins," Skyfire said.

"I'll get the mop—Wait, we're picking up Wheeljack's team?"

"Orders from Prime; Wheeljack just called me up and told me about what's been going on while you were unloading our latest medical victim haul…"

Skyfire then proceeded to tell MJ about what he had heard from Wheeljack, from Max's kidnapping, to the hasty star cruiser launch of Benjamin's team, to Anne's betrayal and the new Autobot Effort, Alias.

"So we are going to pick up Wheeljack and the Lamborghini Twins, then Optimus' party when they come here, then we're going to follow the Decepticons and get our girls back," Skyfire finished. "I know you're tired, but can you clean me up? I'd be embarrassed to carry a Prime with my interior in such a condition…"

"No problem," MJ assured, going off to find the mop and bucket reserved for such occasions. "You just focus on flying and I'll debate how hard I'd have to swing a mop at Sideswipe's head to keep him from bouncing off the walls…"


	25. Protecting Innocence

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 25: Protecting Innocence**

"So, judging by what I saw back there in the piloting room, you are experiencing the classic case of an alpha-male battle, yes?"

Mextron turned away from the observation deck window and looked at Starscream, who had appeared behind him. Most of the other Decepticons were sleeping or on guard duty right now, but here the red and white Seeker was, talking to Mextron during one of his increasingly rare private moments.

"What does it matter to you?" Mextron asked.

"Oh, it's just amusing," Starscream said, "To see one of the alphas finally become an omega."

The older, taller robot came to stand beside Mextron and turned his red optics to the stars beyond the super thick glass roof. Mextron stared at him hard, trying to determine what the treacherous Seekers' desire was.

"What?" he asked.

"Well, it happens all the time," Starscream explained simply, turning to Mextron. "The second-in-command, such as my self, does not like the current leader, such as Megatron, and begins fighting. Smartmouth fights you all the time—"

"She is not my second-in-command; I'm not so stupid as to hold someone that will backstab me as my heir to leadership, like Megatron."

"Let me finish," Starscream chuckled. Mextron didn't like the sly smile on Starscream's face; when ever Starscream smiled, nothing good was about to happen.

"I fight Megatron all the time, or at least used to, until he wised up and began sending me out on mission after mission," Starscream went on, using that annoying high voice that made Mextron want to smash his face into the nearest bar. "But lately, someone else has taken my place to bash cranium units with: You."

Mextron raised an eye brow.

"You are a lot alike, you know; the tempers, the faces, the brutality to your enemies, the balance of leadership. The likings alone could strike quite a conflict, but there are key differences that threaten to cause you to blow each other to scrap: Megatron rules with force, you, with words. Megatron seeks eternal rule, you, for survival. Megatron will go through mechs like shock absorbers with little to no care. _You_ prefer to keep your mechs alive and slowly cultivate them into true warriors, and if I may say that that is going _quite_ well. Your finest example is that strange moth-mech, Flickword, was it? He was _such_ a pathetic target when he first came to the Decepticons, but now look; he's rising through the ranks and even being called a new Blitzwing! A sane one, that is, like the original."

"What do you want, Starscream?" Mextron growled dangerously.

"I am merely sighing in relief at finally meeting someone I can relate to," Starscream assured, placing an arm across Mextron's shoulders. "Smartmouth never listens to me, and it just feels _so good_ to have someone to talk to about the whole alpha-omega battle-augh!"

Starscream's sentence was cut off in a shout of surprise when Mextron seized the arm on his shoulders and flipped the Seeker completely over him self, slamming the Seeker on his back on the floor. Quickly, Mextron drew his sword and pointed it at the Seekers' throat, holding the arm still in the other hand to prevent escape.

"_Don't_ think that just because I don't like him gives me a chance of helping _you_ over throw him," Mextron growled. "I may despise him, and he may want nothing more than to see my Spark Chamber be converted into a refrigerator, but at this point in time he is the only thing keeping my fellow Decepticon Efforts and me alive. His protection keeps us breathing for another day, no matter how many of those breaths are used to calm ourselves down after a round of verbal abuse. He dies; we die, it's as simple as that. So I don't give a flying slag about your own petty wants and desires; Megatron will stay alive as long as he protects my charges."

Starscream's captured arm suddenly seized Mextron's own and flung him forward. Mextron was briefly surprised at the skillful move, but wiped it away quickly; Starscream was an experienced warrior, after all, and his cowardice had to be hiding _something. _Mextron rolled over and onto his feet as Starscream leapt to his own feet. The Seekers' jets activated in his feet and back, sending him shooting him up into the air.

"You think you can _protect _them?" Starscream snarled. "You think that _he_ will _continue_ protecting you? Boy…"

Starscream suddenly dove down and tackled Mextron, pinning him to the floor. Mextron's sword was knocked from his hand by a flailing jet wing and his hands were pinned down while Starscream sat on top of him.

"He will _watch_ as you _burn_ and _laugh_," Starscream hissed. "The instant he sees the perfect opportunity to kill you all, all you wretched, disgusting, Transformer-human hybrid _abominations_, he will take it and _you will die_. You are just well skilled mutts that he used to get his campaign started. You are nothing more than gross weapons to him at this point in time, and the only reason he 'protects' you is so that he may have the pleasure of killing you himself."

He released Mextron, shoving off of the smaller mech as he got to his feet. He walked away and picked up Mextron's sword, examining it as the young mech got to his feet. He stared at the sword, and did not turn to let Mextron see his face as he spoke, his voice changing from disgust to something strange and new… was it sympathy, admiration, or something all more personal?

He said slowly. "It's truly admirable how much you take care of your Efforts. You know, Smartmouth may always back talk you all the time, and while she hasn't exactly told me this without spilling energon on my head…" A small smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. "She really does like you."

He turned around, putting on a mask of disgust as he handed the sword back to Mextron.

"Keep that blade sharp," he warned, "All the easier it will be to slide it through Megatron's Spark Chamber when he has his arm cannon to your head."

With that, Starscream left the observation platform. Mextron stayed there for several more hours, staring at the sword in his hands.

- - - -

"What is the meaning of this, Mextron?" Smartmouth asked.

Mextron had called Ferrofluid, Skynet, Blitzwing, and Smartmouth to meet with him in the pilot room. At this time in the night, the pilot room was abandoned, giving them adequate privacy. Now they held a council all in human form.

"Starscream approached me tonight and warned me that Megatron was going to kill us all eventually, but that in itself is not what brought me here," Mextron said. "It's what he reminded me of: Cartwheel and Shadowleap. They are too young for this war and all they have ever known is conflict. It is too late for us to rehabilitate, but them… they are still young enough."

"What are you recommending, Mextron?" Ferrofluid inquired.

"I am recommending that at the first chance we get, we find the little ones a proper home to live normal lives in, away from the war."

Protests arose from the other Efforts, mostly at the impossibility of the idea.

"They love us too much to leave, you dolt!" Smartmouth said, but her insult held no hostility. "If you even _suggest _that they scram to become Jack and Jill living on the hill, they'll refuse! They have powers, they certainly don't _look _human enough to live in a human family, and Thundercracker and Skywarp would blow a gasket of you recommended such a thing!"

"I know," Mextron said, looking down sadly. "But remember the first time you killed your first human or Transformer? Do you remember the first time in battle when you were forced to watch your back at all times? Do you remember the nightmares that haunt you nearly every night, reminding you of the sins you've done that day? Do you _really_ want the little ones to live such a life?"

Ferrofluid, Smartmouth, and Skynet were silent, but Blitzwing spoke up.

"Yes, I do remember," he said. "And if they can not handle it, then mayhap they do not belong in the army."

"That's my point!" Mextron snapped. "They're too young for war! They're _children_, for Primus' sake! They don't deserve any of that! They at least deserve the chance to live a life they haven't been forced into and choose for themselves. Or do you think we should make them dogs of war before they even learn the meaning of peace?"

At this, everyone was silent. They all loved Cartwheel and Shadowleap with all their Sparks, even Blitzwing. Something about their cute innocence and how well they dealt with the death around them made them more lovable than anyone else they knew. It is a natural reflex of older populations to take little ones under their wing and protect them from the evils of the world, as if protecting such innocence will immortalize them in some saintly tale. But now, they were realizing, that to protect the little ones under their wing, they may have to leave the little ones in a strangers' nest and lead the war hawks away.

"…What is your plan?" Smartmouth asked.

- - - -

Bumblebee would have never suspected the mech he had met as Alias' adopted, mind-wiped father, Dudbud, to have been a human at one time, much less a Breaker Laboratories scientist. He moved with the heavy stiffness of a Transformer, he smiled and spoke like a Transformer, he spoke fluent Cybertronian, and had even transformed from his tank-car Cybertronian hybrid mode to greet Bumblebee like a Transformer in the small, humble home outside a massive scrap yard. Bumblebee had taken all his will power not to all-out ask the mech if he truly did not know whether or not he had been a human at one time.

But something in Dudbud's optics… something in Alias' father's optics told Bumblebee that it was a façade. Something in those optics told Bumblebee plainly that the amnesia was faked and that he darn well remembered who and what he had been, but kept it hidden now because of who and what he was now: He was no longer Dr. Hoffman, a human scientist of Earth, but Dudbud, father of Alias. It was all a masquerade.

Bumblebee had told Dudbud about what had happened to Alias and see Dudbud's face turn from surprise, to terror, to confusion, and to a protective anger. But when it came to the part where Bumblebee told Dudbud of how Alias could help the Autobots, Dudbud had nodded and agreed to let Alias go.

"Her… _abilities_ will be put to good use with you," Dudbud had said. "And who better to protect her than the Autobots?"

The words, then, had slipped out of Bumblebee's yellow mouth like they were sentient spirits seeking to possess another's mind and heart.

"The only thing that is not Transformer about you is your ability to lie," he said. "The only mechs I know who are this good at covering up their past are Decepticons."

To this, Dudbud had smirked in friendly amusement and replied, "Humans have always been good at lying. And if lying is what I had to do to keep my life here on Cybertron firm, then I think it is well worth it. Just do this for me: Protect Alias. Let her come back to me. She has a reluctance to fight like her Transformer father, Preceptor, Primus bless his deceased Spark, and she is traumatized still from my human death."

Bumblebee had promised this and had proceeded to transform into his Earthling car form and rendezvous with the star cruiser that Optimus' team was borrowing from the Cybertronian army to follow the Decepticons to Earth. They would have to return the ship, though, as Cybertron would need every available cruiser it had to patrol its skies, now that the Decepticon threat was back. They had taken off once it was assured that Alias was allowed to come, and Ratchet and Ironhide had went into a private room on the cruiser to begin the weapon upgrading on Becky and Josh. Optimus steered the ship with Alias and Benjamin as company, Sam left to his own devices, and Jazz and Prowl waited anxiously for their son and daughter to come out of their upgrading, leaving Bumblebee to park in the corner with his own thoughts, going over his meeting with Dudbud.

_He cares about Alias so much, in spite of not being his daughter or even his species,_ Bumblebee thought. _I almost lost Max in Transport City, and I just might loose him again, what, with Breaker Labs having him in custody and all. Hoffman—Dudbud cares so much about Alias… have I cared enough for Max? Have I ever told him how I love spotting his yellow head streak into the room on Grind? Have I ever told him how much I like the relief I feel after the worry of watching him do a skateboard trick? Have I ever told him how much I admired his balance, his recklessness, his grasp on his freedom? Have I ever told him how much I—_

Suddenly, the ship shuddered as the engines shut down and the computers began whining for attention. Bumblebee, startled, began to transform.

"What's this?" Optimus asked, tapping at the ship's controls.

"A virus appears to be locking us out of our computers," Alias said in her little child's voice. She tilted her head to the side as she stared at the ceiling, as if listening to something. "One of our enemies is doing it: Either Decepticons or Breaker Labs."

"Breaker Labs," Optimus asked as Ratchet came out of the room where he and Ironhide were operating. "Well, how do we fix--?"

Ratchet suddenly began slamming his wrench multiple times on the control board, making both Alias and Optimus back up in surprise.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! _Shut up!!!_" Ratchet bellowed.

The computer beeped meekly and, unbelievably, the method of "programming" worked and the virus left their computers, leaving them in operation. Everyone stared at Ratchet with something like admiration and fear as he turned and marched back into his operating room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Well," Sam muttered, "I'm sure glad that _he's_ on _our_ side."


	26. Upgrades

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 26: Upgrades**

**AN: Finally, our Autobot Efforts learn to transform...**

"Well, that should do it," Ironhide stated, holding a final metal plate in place while Ratchet welded it shut. "With Ratchet's medical knowledge and my weapon know-how, you two kids should be ready to fight Decepticons. We trust you, but don't get anywhere near Soundwave! Whatever he did to Anne to make her go crazy we don't want happening to you!"

"Gee, Ironhide, I _love_ how subtle you were about my daughter going _AWOL_ for _Decepticons_," Ratchet growled sarcastically.

"Well, hey, you gotta admit that that's what happened!" Ironhide said without hesitation.

Josh sat up and flexed his arms, working the stiffness out of them. He glanced over at the other table that had been set up and saw Becky stretching.

"Come on," Becky said, jumping down from her table. "Let's go show our dads the new stuff while the homicidal doctor and the weapons master duke it out."

"Good idea," Josh agreed nervously, bolting out of the room when he saw Ratchet reaching for his name-sake tool.

Outside, Jazz and Prowl both turned to see how their kids were. Both appeared relieved to see that their kids had not been transmogrified into horrifically over-muscled weapons of war or Wheeljack-style bombs. In fact little appeared to have changed about either of them; Josh had a small, narrow, extra fin on the outer side of either arm and leg, as well as two nodes on either side of the black belt pattern at his waist. Becky had a thick black stripe running from under her shoulder to her belt line on either of her sides, and a white belt near the top of her black boots. Other than that, they appeared just like themselves.

"So…" Prowl ventured. "Are you two okay?"

"Did the two even _upgrade_ you?" Sam asked.

"What are your new weapons?" Benjamin asked.

"Total awesomeness," Josh grinned, raising his hands in front of his face and clenching them.

The fins on Josh's limbs unsheathed to become three-pronged fins with crackling energy between their barbed ends. Lowering his hands, he pulled the nodes at his waist and they came out, unsheathing a pair of small blades from his waist. He spun them around like a cowboy would do with his pistol and bared them in front of himself as his visor dropped over his white-blue optics. He grinned mischievously.

"If anyone tries grabbing me," he said, his arm and leg fins flexing, "Then I'll just pull back and give them a good electro-stab with _these_ and a poke in the optic with _these_," he finished, showing his daggers.

"Nice fins," Jazz said in approval, grinning even as he said in a good-natured way, "But no gun? Is this a new trend or something?"

"What do you have, Becky?" Prowl asked.

"Hey, you didn't call me Amethyst," Becky said, grinning. "Well, let me show you…"

She reached over her shoulders and from her back she pulled a round black metal shield and what appeared to be a short sword-sized black and white lance with a glowing blue tip. She squeezed the handle of her lance-like weapon and the tip became hollow as a trigger unsheathed from the handle, turning it into a gun.

"Yeap, blades and other sharp, pointy things are the new gun," Sam said with mock seriousness.

"Very good," Benjamin said approvingly. "But what are the stripes for?"

"Oh, these?" Becky asked, looking down at her sides. "These are just for show. I hope they become racing stripes when I transform."

"You know how to transform?" Sam asked.

"No," Becky said as she and Josh put away their upgrades. "But we must learn if we are going to be of any use."

"Yeah, so, let's take this break between death-defying adventures and disastrous Decepticon duels to learn some basic Transformer abilities," Josh said. "I have dreams of moon lit, midnight drives with my beloved up to a secluded cliff top—"

"Where I can push you off," Becky growled.

"Where we can wrestle in a passionate duel of dominance," Josh declared happily.

"Oh god," Bumblebee groaned as Becky drew out her lance again.

"Turn around and bend over," Becky snarled to Josh, holding her lance in both hands.

"We don't go that way until the third date, babe," Josh replied.

"Uh, honey, Josh is right," Prowl said suddenly, pulling Becky to the side. "It's high time we taught you two how to transform like your proper mech heritage…"

While Prowl and Jazz began to teach their kids to transform with Bumblebee, Optimus, and Alias as witnesses, and Ironhide and Ratchet began a duel in their room, Benjamin gazed sadly on them. Sam noticed this and made his way over to where Benjamin was standing under the control counsel.

"Hey, Benny boy," Sam said, "Why the long face?"

"Oh, hey, Sam," Benjamin replied. "Nothing, it's just…"

"Ya know, saying 'nothing', then going on to talk about something is an annoying thing to me," Sam joked, "Kinda like dummy Hollywood girls saying 'like' at every other word. So, let's try this again: Why the long face?"

Benjamin chuckled sadly, then sighed before responding, "I just… feel left out. I mean, Anne, Josh, and Becky have their Transformer alt-forms and I just feel kind of left out at being the only Autobot Effort around that can't become a Transformer yet, other than Jess. I mean, I'm the leader, right? The kid everyone says will become a Prime? So shouldn't I be the strongest?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Sam agreed, "But, hey, I guess you just haven't done what needs to be done to get that Transformer body."

"What do you mean?" Benjamin asked, turning to Sam.

"Well, look at it this way;" Sam went on. "As far as we know, all the other Efforts got their Transformer forms when they got a little kiss from something metal right in the heart, right?"

"Yes," Benjamin answered slowly.

"Well, there you go!" Sam replied, raising and dropping a hand in show. In one swift motion he drew the dagger Megatron had given them from its hiding place at his belt and held it out, handle first, to Benjamin.

"You gotta get a metal kiss from death itself to get that strength, pal."

Benjamin stared in shock at the dagger, then at Sam, then at the dagger again, and backed up, shaking his head negatively.

"No," he said, "I will _not_ earn my strength through _that_ means."

"Scared? Come on, I'll do it for you!" Sam urged.

"No, Sam," Benjamin stated firmly. "I will… seek other ways of getting my Transformer form."

"It's the only way," Sam warned, "Unless you want to soak in energon for several hours and pain, you're never gonna get your Transformer form and you'll always be a legend of strength and a titan of power trapped in a weak, mortal, human body."

Sam saw hesitation streak through Benjamin's unnaturally blue eyes, viewing his options and his wants. He shook his head and backed up again, but with much loss and reluctance betraying his true feelings in his eyes.

"No…" He said quietly, hesitantly, "I'll… transform… some other way…"

Benjamin turned and walked away, seeking to hide from the tantalizing temptation of power offered him. He did not see Sam smirk as he put the dagger back in his belt.

Benjamin, Optimus, Bumblebee, and Alias all stood to the side to give Prowl, Luna Badge, and Jazz and Tiestowing room to teach and learn. Ratchet and Ironhide limped out of their room, apparently already done with their duel.

"Okay, first of all, you need an alt-mode to scan," Prowl began. "A Transformer is limited on their alt-mode choice by what parts they already have and how large or small they are. If a Transformer has sub-space technology in them, then they can send their extra parts to a storage dimension known as sub-space when they change. This is how Transformers like Soundwave can be so big in robot form, but still assume tiny alt-modes. In the old days, a mech would deliberately have to take inventory of their inner parts to know what they could change into. Now a day, we have computer scanners that tell you what you have with a glance. Ratchet and Ironhide did such a scan while upgrading you and now the computer has some alt-modes for you to choose from."

Prowl nodded to Jazz during the last statement and Jazz pressed some buttons on the control board. Two life-sized holograms of machines appeared floating in front of Tiestowing and Luna Badge.

"Now's the tricky part," Jazz said. "You're gonna have to access your scanning ability to scan these holograms into your transforming sequence. But don't be frustrated if you can't get it; Transforming is one of those things that takes time to learn, like driving a car or martial arts."

"A thing about that is," Tiestowing said, staring at the hologram in front of him. "You just need the basics to do it, and you can elaborate from there."

In Tiestowing's mind's eye, he stared at the hologram, noting where certain lines connected, how certain beams supported the framing, and generally looked it over. Suddenly, the world was seen through a black and white image as if through a negative. He jerked back in surprise as the hologram was reflected on a black, green-grid work back ground and felt it sink _into his body_. Before he knew what he was truly doing, he arched ack, as if doing the limbo, and simply fell apart. In seconds, his body had broken apart and rearranged itself into a hot dog cart.

"Oh…" he said when he found himself in his new body. "Wow."

"That… was painful to watch," Ironhide said carefully.

"Fast, sloppy, jerky, I saw _way _too much of your internals to be comfortable," Ratchet diagnosed. "You _really _need to practice. But… points on getting a hand on it so fast."

"Wait," Tiestowing said, "I am—I—oh _hell _no!"

He quickly reverted to robot mode, making several of the mechs look away from the awkward transformation. He found himself in a semi-kneeling position and fell back hard on his aft.

"A _hot dog cart!?_" he demanded. "I am _not _going to be a hot dog cart, damnit!"

"But you're too new to this to learn a car alt mode," Prowl pointed out.

"He's right," Optimus agreed. "A car has many complex parts in its engine alone. Plus, with all the gear inside, it's a difficult thing to become; seats, seat belts, knobs, dials, buttons, a radio, steering wheel, pedals—"

"Screw that, get me a car alt mode, damnit!"

"You gotta admit," Jazz chuckled, flipping through the holograms. "With _that _kind of attitude, he'll be cruising on four wheels in no time!"

"Yeah, I'm not in agreement with a speed boat, dad," Luna Badge said. "Let's see what else we have."

"Kids, eh, Prowl?" Ironhide chuckled. "Never can settle for anything less than the best."


	27. He's Baaaaaack

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 27: He's Baaaaaaack**

Of course, while legends were being created and acted out elsewhere in the universe, Swindle was having his own swing in historic events.

Swindle was up late in his weapons' warehouse, sitting back in a swivel chair with his feet propped up on the table supporting an enormous computer screen. He used a keyboard to operate the computer as he spoke into a Bluetooth ear piece attached to his head. A box was hooked up to his computer with a green light on it revealing some sort of positive status. Around him, his warehouse had been largely emptied out and only a few stacks of crates here and there had yet to be moved.

"Hey, Oilslick," Swindle said into the Bluetooth, "It's me, Swindle! Yeah, I know, I know, people thought I was dead, but hey, I'm back from the dead and back in business! I got some rather lovely vats of acid with your name on it, just _waiting_ for you to take 'em home. Call me when you're ready for some dealing!"

He tapped at his keyboard, ending the voice mail and coming to another answering machine.

"Yo, Drilltor, I got a rather nice drill waiting for you in my new headquarters; as long as a narwhal tooth, my friend! Or what ever those ugly-aft whales are that humans so amusingly call 'the seas' unicorn'. Oh, and no, you haven't gone crazy: It's me, Swindle. I'm back in business, baby! Hit me up!"

As he spoke, the green light turned red on the box. Quickly, without altering or faltering in his speech as he spoke, Swindle typed at the computer, opening up a data window where a stream of red data had appeared. Once the red data had been deleted and altered, the box's light turned green again, signaling that the virus in the computer was warded off for the time being.

He ended the message and was about to dial yet another number when he heard a distant crashing. His purple optics snapped up in surprise. He looked around, carefully taking the Bluetooth off from around his neck and putting it on the keyboard as he got to his feet as quietly as he could. He turned to the door and slowly took a few steps towards it as he drew a gun from his side. A small patch of shiny clarity appeared in the bottom center of the garage door. It slowly spread, crackling like freezing frost until it made a semi-sized hole in the garage. There was a moment of silence, then, true to adventure lore and suspense laws, the clear patch of garage door exploded inward.

Swindle flung himself into a roll behind a stack of crates and came up in a kneeling position as Cliffjumper and Hound entered the warehouse.

"I slagging _hate_ hostage situations," Cliffjumper growled, drawing a gun as tall as himself from somewhere on his person.

"I can't believe you actually broke your bonds with brute _strength_," Hound said. "And _where_ did that _gun_ come from?"

"One: I was pissed, okay? I was pissed, so don't judge me," Cliffjumper replied, holding up an index finger. "And two; where I store my guns is a secret only a femme will ever get out of me, queer."

"You are being cruder than usual, Cliffjumper," Hound scolded. "You really must see to taking some anger management sessions. Does that sound good?"

"F#*% you, Hound, how does _that_ sound???"

"You have the age of Gears and the temper of Ratchet with the wit of Sideswipe."

"Woo-freaking-hoo for me," Cliffjumper grumbled.

At that moment, the Bluetooth began to ring.

Swindle darted out from his hiding place, leaping over the laser shots that Hound and Cliffjumper began firing on him and snatching the Bluetooth off of the keyboard. Swindle set the phone device into his audio receptor as he rolled away from the shots and darted behind another crate of armor.

"Hey ya, Swindle talking; let's make deals, not war," Swindle said in his best sales man tone to who ever was on the other end of the phone line. "My apologies for any communications problems we may have; a virus keeps infecting the computer that keeps this device upgraded beyond mere human technology and I appear to be under attack by a hippy and an old psycho killer."

"Old!?" Cliffjumper yelled.

"Hippy?" Hound asked, approaching the crate where Swindle was.

Swindle peeked out from behind his crate, then came out further and began shooting at the two Autobots. They retreated to the tin building's doors and used them as cover.

"Ah, Monster, how goes the little brother?" Swindle asked. "Good? Good, good; so, what can I do for you? Of _course_ I still have the level six, three-inch radius tooth flesh grinding gears, who else could I save them for? Yes, yes, I was thinking of you when I bought those off of a Canadian lumber jack, my friend."

Swindle dropped back behind his crate and kept his gun pointing out, shooting randomly out at Cliffjumper and Hound as he continued speaking on the phone, true to customer service.

"How heavy are they?" Swindle asked, "Oh, I'd say thirteen pounds for the small gears and thirty for the decent-sized gears, but weight is no concern fro you, of course, considering what a fine specimen of Transformer strength you are. Oh, balance is important to you now a day? Wait, you have _what_ on a _what_? And it works _how_???"

He stopped shooting in surprise, dropping his gun to his side.

"How is that even _possible_?" Swindle asked. "Oh, humans made it, huh? Oh, _Japanese_ humans? Oh, well, now that just explains everything. Well, anyway, back to those gears…"

Cliffjumper appeared standing over Swindle. Without looking, Swindle shot Cliffjumper's knee out. As Cliffjumper collapsed to the ground with a cry, Swindle shot a hole into the crate he was in and rummaged through it, dropping his gun as he pulled out a larger, more impressive-looking bazooka from with in. He calmly trotted over to another collection of crates while Hound rushed over to look after Cliffjumper.

"Well," Swindle said. "There are thirteen-pounders, the small gears. Mediums come in between fifteen to twenty pounds, and the big ones are thirty pounds. Of _course_ we can get one crafted for six pounds! What kind of a merchant would I be not to offer options? Now, about pricing…"

Swindle ducked a shot from Hound, then turned and set up his bazooka, carefully aiming for the larger green Autobot, squinting one optic in concentration.

"How does fourteen American dollars a pound sound? Hold on, gotta wipe off some Autobot slag…"

He put his customer on hold before he pulled the trigger and a large org of blue and white energy leaped from the long gun, knocking Swindle back a little. Hound saw the shot coming and pulled himself and Cliffjumper out of the way just as the shot came upon them. The energy bounced off of the concrete, to the wall, to the roof, and back down to Swindle, making ricocheting bullet noises as it went. Swindle's optics widened and his mouth made an O of surprise before the energy struck him head-on, sending him sliding across the floor on his back.

Groaning in pain, Swindle sat up and rubbed his head. He heard a crack and turned to see his Blue Tooth, or what was left of it, shower to the floor as so many bits of plastic and metal. Odd, it was really tiny now. Looking around, he realized that the garage seemed to have shrunk somewhat. Suddenly, he realized what could possibly have happened and shook his head in bemusement.

"Must have been some untested prototype," Swindle muttered.

Smirking, he got to his feet and grinned triumphantly when he realized that he was no longer merely human sized, but back to his full twenty-some foot height, towering over the Autobots like a true Decepticon. Some how, the strange energy ray had reversed the shrinking effects that had been put on Swindle so many years ago in the Final Battle of the first Autobot-Decepticon War and had reverted him to his true height. It was just another way of how time was reversing itself in these strange times. Hound and Cliffjumper groaned in dismay upon seeing Swindle's return to full height and a few swift charges and kicks later, the two Autobots were sprawled, unconscious, across the floor.

The red light turned on again in the box and Swindle walked over to the computer. He tapped at a panel on the table and the keyboard flipped over, changing into a much larger, Transformer-useable keyboard. He began typing in several commands as he spoke.

"I'll let you two live," Swindle told his unconscious opponents, "Call it a 'thank you gift' for returning me to my true size."

He finished the orders and tapped a button on his chest, turning away from the computer as the seams of the enormous tin garage flashed a purple light.

"Hello, Monster?" he asked, "Sorry for the hold, my good friend. So, about pricing—"

The purple glow faded from the seams of the building. The roof suddenly lifted off the building with a great whirr of machinery. The walls folded out, becoming flat on the surrounding grass of the area and leaving the concrete floor exposed. Swindle strode over to a slightly lower rectangle of concrete, pressing a crudely welded lever on a table as he went. The lower rectangle began to lower itself as Swindle stepped onto it. The elevator lowered itself into a special weapons room whose cargo had not been shipped out with the merchandise that had been in the main garage over head. Around Swindle, the walls glowed brightly as machine hummed and shuddered to life, making the environment itself vibrate.

"My, my," Swindle chuckled, "A bit impatient, aren't we?"

A hidden door slid up and opened in front of Swindle at the far end of the room, emitting him into a small piloting cock pit. Swindle sat down in the pilot chair and leaned back leisurely, staring out at the blackness beyond the window screen.

"I see," Swindle stated to his caller, "Time _is_ money, as humans say. Well, then…"

Suddenly, the entire space around Swindle shuddered violently, as if with in the grip of an earthquake, and the cock pit and all connected parts rose up. Earth and concrete shattered and crumbled over head, carelessly tossing two Autobots aside as a ship was finally awoken. Large and sleek, the black cargo jet with dark purple and blue accents that rose out of the ground looked like something a dark futuristic villain or an extremely attractive, dark hero would pilot. The dark blue and purple lights with in its jet cones glowed brightly as the jet rose up and into the sky. Swindle smirked as the starry night sky appeared over the dark tree tops of the night-time mountain.

"I'll make the delivery personally with in sixteen hours," Swindle finished. "See you then, my friend."

Hanging up the communication, Swindle took control of the jet and flew it forward, over the tree tops and into the sky. Taking a deep breath, he sighed in contentment and smiled. His part in this story is over, but his personal tale had only been resurrected after so many years of hiding in a shrunken body. From here, he would return to being a well-known black market dealer and character of the Autobot-Decepticon war.

"It's good to be back…" he whispered.

**- - -**

**Author's Note: And hence, Swindle is finally returned to his proper place in the universe. I've never seen any G1 cartoons with him in them yet, but he won my heart in Animated XD. Sadly, neither he nor Hound or Cliffjumper will be making any further appearences in the rest of the story.**


	28. Role Call In Russia

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 28: Role Call in Russia**

"What is the status report on our quarry?"

"The Decepticon war ship is coming right to us. They will be landing in T-minus thirty-two minutes. The Autobot party is now transferring itself from the borrowed star cruiser into Skyfire will proceed to follow the Decepticon war ship in approximately five minutes. They will be arriving here in T-minus forty-three minutes."

"How is our virus doing?"

"Most people are still trying to figure out how to stop it. As far as we know, the only people who have managed to hold it off are Decepticon Effort Skynet, some back-hills merchant in America, and (with the assistance of Teletran One), Jack Turbine, apprentice of Wheeljack. It's significantly slowed all other war effort with those acceptations."

"Dr. Moriguchi, sir, shouldn't we _stop_ the Autobots and Decepticons before they come to us?"

"Of course not, my good fellow; we shouldn't be _inhospitable _to our guests, now, should we?" Moriguchi snickered. "And besides, I'm sure that they would _love _to see what we've done with their _old friend,_ Max. Bring in any and all guard drones and have all personnel stationed in the laboratories and control rooms. We'll let the robots come to us."

- - - -

"Let's have one final roll call before we launch: Starscream?"

"Here."

"Thundercracker?"

"Here."

"Skywarp?"

"Here."

"Mextron?"

"Here."

"Smartmouth?"

"Do you not see me standing in front of you?"

"Ferrofluid?"

"Present, sir."

"Skynet?"

"Presence: Affirmative."

"And your Cassetticons?"

"Rockpunch: Present. Suspicion: Present."

"Shadowleap?"

"Hiya!"

"Cartwheel?"

"Hello."

"Scarletclaw?"

"Let's shred some fleshlings!"

"And finally: Blitzwing the Second…. All three of him."

"Reporting for duty, sir." Ca-chick! "**What, you think I'm only here for my own health?"** Ca-chick! "Ooh, are we going to a party? Will there be punch? I like punch, especially a brass-knuckle lined punch!"

Everybody groaned negatively at Random Blitzwing's pun and Megatron merely shook his head. Behind Megatron, Shockwave stepped forward and spoke quietly to him.

"My Lord," Shockwave whispered, "Are you sure you need so many people for a mere raid on a human base, and with so many Efforts?"

Megatron motioned for his team to board the pre-chosen battle cruiser that was parked in the _Reborn Nemesis_' garage bay.

Ravage bound forward and stopped Scarletclaw.

"Remember the lessons I gave you, girl," he growled.

"Pin the other guy down and go straight for the jugular, and never get my claws stuck, got it," Scarletclaw confirmed.

Ravage gave Scarletclaw a kitty lick on the head in approval.

"Good girl," he purred. "Now go forward and prove that you're more than an Autobot kitten."

Scarletclaw hissed at him to show her ferocity before bounding into the battle cruiser. As the team went into the dark grey, jet-like cruiser decorated with red Decepticon insignias on its wings and sides, Megatron and Shockwave spoke privately.

"What my plans require is none of your business, Shockwave," Megatron growled, "Just keep the ship protected until we've removed the annoying little _glitch_ that keeps our computers locked down. I will return soon, so keep everyone in line here."

"If I may say one more thing, sir," Shockwave pleaded.

"Make it quick."

"Soundwave and I would like to come along, as well, just to keep an eye out on our Efforts—"

"What, don't think Ferrofluid can handle himself in combat, Shockwave?" Megatron teased with a smirk. "Or do you fear that they may try something rather stupid and treacherous in which case you would have to protect them from my wrath?"

Had Shockwave a face, he would have scowled in annoyance, but instead shook his head and merely replied in his bland tone, "No, sir, it just doesn't feel right to be separated like so when we can be together."

"Blasted Spark connections," Megatron sighed. "I look forward to the day when you find a way of severing such petty connections, Shockwave."

With that final statement, Megatron turned away and boarded the battle cruiser. Shockwave watched as the cruiser was ejected out of the _Reborn Nemesis_ and dove down to the waiting Earth below. Behind him, a certain blue and white cassette player transformed and came from the shadows.

"There was a time where I would not care whether or not a creature related to me was endangered," Shockwave said without looking at Soundwave. "But, alas, such a time has passed and the human ability to grow on one's self has infected me with sympathy and care for my boy, Ferrofluid. Have you been infected too, Soundwave, or are you too holy for such petty things like love and caring?"

"Negative," Soundwave replied. "Purpose: Serve Lord Megatron. Purpose: Protect Decepticon Effort Skynet. Logic: Megatron does not mean to bring Decepticon Effort Skynet back. Error: Can not serve Megatron _and_ protect Skynet. Question: How to protect Skynet _and_ serve Megatron?"

"Damned if we act, damned if we don't," Shockwave sighed. Suddenly, his optic brightened up and he looked at Soundwave, "But… maybe _we_ don't have to act, per-say…"

- - - -

"So you'll let me go, but only on the premise that I tail Megatron's party and keep your kids alive?" Jess asked.

"Affirmative: Weapons will be given and assistance offered," Soundwave replied. "Warning: Assistance limited; Can not allow Megatron to discover such deals."

"I thought you two were the most loyal Cons to Megatron," Jess said, peering warily up at the 'Waves from with in her cage.

"We are," Shockwave stated. "But… It appears that our Efforts have grown on us and we fear for their safety."

"Sure that isn't just fatherly lone and instinct talking?"

"You seem to have forgotten that I _have_ no emotion," Shockwave pointed out. "At least, I didn't, a long time ago."

"Offer: Accepted?" Soundwave asked.

"Sure, anything to get out of here," Jess agreed. "I just ask of two things in return: I want Pointblank back, and I don't want you to kill any Autobots for the next, mmm, three days."

"Pointblank is the weapon we are giving you anyway," Shockwave said, opening Jess' cage and picking her up, "And the deal is that you watch over our Efforts and we set you free: Nothing more, nothing less."

"So…?" Jess asked.

"Request to not kill Autobots: Denied," Soundwave stated.

"Cheap old men…" Jess grumbled.

- - - -

"Optimus Prime, sir," Skyfire announced, "I have just detected a Decepticon battle cruiser landing near a salt mine in Russia. The _Reborn Nemesis_ seems to be waiting in orbit. There is a high number of Decepticon Efforts in the cruiser and I can even detect Megatron and Anne there."

"And of Jess?" Optimus asked, watching the borrowed Autobot cruiser dart back into space, following its homing beacon back to Cybertron.

"I can not detect her yet; perhaps she is among the landing party?"

"Are they going into the salt mine?"

"It appears so, sir."

"Then let's have a roll call and see what they're up to. Benjamin?"

"Here."

"Prowl?"

"Reporting for duty, sir."

"Becky?"

"It's _Amethyst_ now, Optimus! I re-named myself? I'm going to get myself painted purple when I get the chance."

Prowl smiled and shook his head in bemusement, but said nothing.

"Right, Amethyst. Jazz?"

"Ready to kick some Decepti-skid plate, sir!"

"Good, Josh?"

"I think I like 'Tiestowing' now."

Optimus looked at Josh-now-Tiestowing.

"That's an Earth word I'm unfamiliar with," Optimus said, "What does it mean?"

"Tiesto was just a really famous DJ from the early 2000's era," Tiestowing explained. "I think it's a cool name and a cool wink to human culture, kinda like how Dad likes human culture. And the 'wing' part, well…" He unsheathed and re-sheathed his wings. "You get the idea."

"I'm so proud of you," Jazz sniffed, whipping a mock tear from his optic.

"Very well, Tiestowing, moving on: Ironhide?"

"Me and all my guns, sir!"

"Bumblebee?"

"Here."

"Wheeljack?"

"Ready!"

"Ratchet?"

"Here."

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe?"

"I'm here, but Sunstreaker's optic and some of his sanity isn't," Sideswipe joked. He ducked the punch Sunstreaker aimed at him.

"Very well," Optimus finished, "Skyfire, Michelangelo, Alias, and the human Sam will all remain in the sky while the rest of us go down and see what the Decepticons are up to down there."

"Optimus," Skyfire announced, "In coming call from Jack Turbine and Teletran One."

"Put them through."

_**Blip!**_ _"Hey, guys,"_ Jack Turbine called over the communications link. _"Teletran One and I can't stop the virus, but we've tracked down who's causing it: Some one in some underground base somewhere in Russia. We can't get an exact location because the coordinates of the origin point keeps changing. Where ever the virus is being broadcasted from, it's either from with in a huge complex or multiple individual computers."_

"So Megatron is going after the guys causing the cyber-lock down in the salt mines?" Wheeljack suggested.

"Figures," Sideswipe snickered, "He probably got annoyed with having to work around the virus to get to his feel-good email messages of the day."

"Thank you, Jack; any word from Hound or Cliffjumper?" Optimus asked.

"_No, not yet, but we'll keep looking."_

"Keep in touch," Optimus said.

Skyfire shook a little as he came down through the atmosphere and Jack hung up.

"Why can't I come?" Sam asked. "Can't I help with nothing on this mission?"

"It's too dangerous, Sam," Optimus told him, "You're not a Transformer and we're going to be dealing with Transformer threats."

"So, Benjamin ain't no Transformer and you're letting him come!" Sam objected.

Benjamin felt a sharp pain in his pride and gritted his teeth to keep himself from shouting as he replied, "But I am _part_ Transformer and I have _years_ of military knowledge and training under my belt."

"Yeah, how much of that has actually been _practiced_?" Sam asked.

"We're landing just a couple miles away from the salt mine and the Decepticon cruiser," Skyfire spoke as he gently landed. His bay doors opened up to a cold, stunted forest land outside. The sky in the west was yellow from the fading sunset light as night covered Russia. "The salt mine entrance is approximately 1.24 miles south east. Good luck."

"Autobots," Optimus said, "Transform and roll out!"

Optimus turned into his truck-alt mode. Ratchet became a red and white hospital ambulance. Bumblebee turned into a beetle bug, Ironhide a van, Wheeljack into a race car, Prowl into a police cruiser, Jazz into a Porsche, and the Lamborghini twins into their names sake. It was something proud for Jazz and Prowl to see Tiestowing and Amethyst transform for the first time, having finally scanned in their own alt-forms on their flight here.

Amethyst had succeeded in adopting an Earthling car mode and was now a sleek, feminine 2006 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, with a white roof center and racing stripes on either side while the rest of her body was black. As an after thought, a red and blue rack of lights popped out of her roof.

"I still can not believe that that is Finland's police car," Jazz muttered. "We're _so_ moving there when this is all done…"

Tiestowing had adopted a classic 1965 Mustang body. With his white and black paint job, the Mustang looked like it had come from an old science-fiction movie. But just as that fact was registered, fins on his trunk extended slightly, emitting a tiny trace of energy, his head lights became almond-shaped and a pair of black racing stripes grew from the white paint to run along the top of his car body. Something about the body, in general, appeared to change: Did his roof struts slant? Did he become narrower, or thinner? It was difficult to place one's finger on it, but the body over all changed and thus made the alt-mode a vehicle of undetermined body type other than a vague "1960's Mustang".

Thus transformed, the Autobots drove out of Skyfire and headed to the salt mines. Behind them, Alias waved a cheery good bye while Michelangelo muttered a plea for good luck. Sam, on the other hand, was scowling at something having gone wrong. Behind his deep blue visor, he fixed his eyes on Alias and a plan began to form.

"Well, here we go again," Ironhide groaned. "Off into yet another dangerous, life-and-death mission and we'll probably not going to come back this time."

"Aww, don't be such a pessimist, Ironhide!" Jazz teased. "Be optimistic, like Optimus!"

"Did you just make a joke of my name, Jazz?" Optimus asked.

"Well, even if we _do_ perish," Amethyst said. "At least we'll all go down together."

Josh took the chance to begin playing a song on his radio. Its name was _Goodnight Saigon _by Billy Joel.

"We met as soul mates on Parris Island  
We left as inmates from an asylum  
And we were sharp, as sharp as knives  
And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives

"We came in spastic, like tame-less horses  
We left in plastic, as numbered corpses  
And we learned fast to travel light  
Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight

"We had no home front, we had no soft soap  
They sent us Playboy, they gave us Bob Hope  
We dug in deep and shot on sight  
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might."

"Huh, I wonder if _we'll _make our own war song someday," Jazz commented. "Something to remember _our_ times by."

"What, like a theme song?" Prowl asked. "Eh, I don't know—"

"Shaddup!" Ironhide hissed. "Here comes the good part!"

"We had no cameras to shoot the landscape  
We passed the hash pipe, and played our Doors tapes  
And it was dark, so dark at night  
And we held on to each other  
Like brother to brother  
We promised our mothers we'd write

"And we would all go down together  
We said we'd all go down together  
Yes we would all go down together"

And wouldn't you know it; soon the entire war party was singing it.


	29. The Salt Mine

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 29: The Salt Mine**

When one came to the artificial meadow in the middle of the forest where the salt mine base was it was a bit unusual to find civilization in the middle of no where. The ground was void of greenery, having been pounded into rock-hard dirt from past years of activity over it. There were a couple of decent-sized buildings, including a garage, and what appeared to be a medical center-barracks combination room. A final building standing apart from the others, sitting beside a dusty helicopter pad, possessed no outward clue as to what its purpose was.

"Scarletclaw, Cartwheel, Shadowleap: Scout out those buildings and make sure no one is inside," Megatron ordered, pointing to the hospital-barracks and garage. "Seekers, Ferrofluid, Blitzwing: Go up and check that the coast is clear. Mextron, Skynet: Power down and see what is in that third building over there."

The Seekers and Blitzwing assumed their jet forms and rocketed into the sky. Ferrofluid, in his Transformer form, knelt and crossed his arms across his chest like a sleeping Egyptian mummy as his limbs dissolved in a strange shift of metal and wire. His dragon fly wings became rotor blades while his black visor enlarged and became a large windshield and his claws extended beneath him, becoming landing struts. As a military helicopter, he spun his blades and quickly took flight after his noisier and faster flying comrades.

The party did as they were commanded, acting quickly to complete their tasks, as the longer Megatron was kept waiting, the more annoyed and furious he would become. The reports returned quick, short, and full.

"No one in the medical area," Cartwheel said first over her ear-bud translator communicator.

"Not even a mouse in the garage," Shadowleap called in.

"Not even a lazy bum in the barracks to claw," Scarletclaw pouted, swatting at an empty barrack bed.

"South sky: Clear," Skywarp reported.

"East sky: Clear," Thundercracker said.

"North sky: Not even as much as a stupid bear," Starscream grunted.

"West sky appears to be clear," Blitzwing called.

"Hold it," Ferrofluid said, "I spy Autobots coming to us from the northwest. Skyfire also appears to be patrolling the air high over head."

"Autobots!?" Megatron exclaimed, "How did they find us?"

"Well, considering that we came back to Earth in a _giant uncloaked war ship_…" Smartmouth snarled.

"It's a wonder why the Autobots haven't just shot us out of the sky already," Starscream finished.

And awkward pause fell on the party.

"This is getting too creepy," Smartmouth muttered.

"Agreed," Starscream added.

"Megatron, sir," Mextron called, "The last building appears to be the entrance to the salt mines. It is larger than expected; a Transformer could even come down the elevator shaft if they so wished."

"A Transformer-sized entrance into human salt mines," Megatron muttered, "This mission is becoming more and more curious."

"Megatron!" Starscream yelled, "Are we going to kill these Autobots or just let them kick our aft again!?"

"It _would_ be a wiser decision to dispatch them now, sir," Blitzwing agreed, "There appear to be eleven of them, all elites, led by Optimus Prime."

Megatron counted his party members and realized that it came up to thirteen, including Skynet's Cassetticons. One would assume that, being the leader of a slightly larger and stronger party, Megatron would simply order a head-on attack. But Megatron had learned more than a trick or two in all his eons of warfare, not to mention that he had learned never to underestimate an Autobot. Also, head on attacks had a tendency of not working or backfiring on Earth for some reason. With in a few quick moments of thinking, he had an idea.

"No," Megatron said. "Mextron, Smartmouth, Skynet, Ferrofluid, Blitzwing, and Starscream: You will go on ahead into the mines and scout ahead while the rest of us hide in the garage. If there are any extra _obstacles_ down in those mines, you can lead the Autobots right into them."

Mextron opened his mouth to object, but the way Megatron pulled Starscream out of the sky by his wing when he passed too low to the ground, Megatron meant business. Quickly, the Seekers and Efforts landed and went to their designated places. Reluctantly, Mextron led the way into the salt mines entrance building while Megatron led his chosen party into the garage. In the salt mine entrance building, Mextron waited until all the members of his party were on the elevator before allowing Skynet to manipulate the controls to lower them down into the ground. In the garage, Megatron motioned for everyone to be silent and peeked out of a small crack he left in the large tin garage door to stare out into the base.

Sure enough, three minutes later, the team of Autobots rolled into the base and transformed.

"Are you sure this is the place, Wheeljack?" Optimus asked.

"Yeap," Wheeljack agreed.

"This place is dead," Sideswipe muttered.

"Dead as a scrap yard," Sunstreaker agreed.

"Dead as your love life," Sideswipe joked. He dodged the punch Sunstreaker aimed at him.

"Well, the signals are coming from underground, right?" said silver mech that the Decepticons did not recognize. "Well then, let's go underground!"

"Hold on, Tiestowing," Jazz cautioned, "You never know when a Decepti-creep might be prowling around—no pun intended, Prowl."

"None acknowledged," Prowl assured. To the new femme, he said, "Amethyst; how about you and I go check near those barracks?"

Megatron noticed that Scarletclaw had her ruby optics fixed on Benjamin, the only human-formed member of the Autobot party. Grinning devilishly, he bent over from his kneeling position and patted the femme feline on the back.

"Go for it," he whispered.

Like a demon released from its cage, Scarletclaw bounded from the garage and streaked towards Benjamin. Before the Autobots could even fully form shocked looks, Scarletclaw had seized Benjamin by his shoulder in her mouth and dragged him towards the elevator building. Benjamin let out a cry of pain and struggled, but no human muscles could resist the jaws of a Transformer animal. She stopped in the shadows and looked back at the Autobots. In the shadows of the salt mine entrance building, her optics flared like demon coals.

"Anne!" Ratchet cried out.

But Scarletclaw failed to acknowledge her name, much less her father, and instead ran deeper into the building where the elevator had yet to rise back up from dropping off its previous passengers. Biting down harder into Benjamin's shoulder for a good grip, Anne boldly leaped down into the elevator shaft, unsheathing sharp claws that she dug into the dirt side and slid down the shaft. The Autobots followed her and hesitated only for a minute to stare down the shaft. Ratchet jumped down first, seizing the elevator cables in his red metal hands and sliding down it. The other Autobots followed suit and soon, the Decepticons were left alone on the surface.

"Now what, Boss?" Skywarp asked.

"Now," Megatron said with a smirk as he sat back, "We wait."

Cartwheel and Shadowleap exchanged terrified glances, but sat down and waited.

- - - -

Shockwave found it easy to sneak Jess to one of the eject bays of the _Reborn Nemesis_ while Soundwave's Cassetticons, Rumble and Frenzy, got into a large fight to distract many of the bays' workers. Shockwave gave Jess Pointblank and a small device with a single button on it.

"This is to help you tail Ferrofluid and Skynet," Shockwave explained. "It will render you invisible to sight, but not sound, so be careful! Remember: If either Skynet or Ferrofluid are killed while you are watching over them, I will hunt you down and make you suffer a fate worse than death a million times over."

"That's understandable," Jess thought, feeling a twinge of pain at the thought of loosing Skynet. "I would deserve it."

One of Shockwave's ear fins flopped down in confusion. Before he could ask for clarification, how ever, they heard approaching metal paws and turned to see Ravage approaching. Neither felt any nervousness at being discovered; they knew that Soundwave could handle his Cassetticons.

"You are to protect Skynet?" Ravage growled.

Jess felt surprise at hearing the feline speak, in spite of already knowing he had such abilities, but nodded anyway.

"Good," Ravage grunted. "You bring my master's kit back alive. Oh, and while you're down there, keep an optic on Scarletclaw, will you? I know that she is not the same femme that you have grown up with and love, but that does not mean that this new her is evil, either."

"I'll watch over her," Jess promised. "She may have betrayed me, but I still feel like the real her is inside somewhere."

"I hope that that is not the case," Ravage replied. "Or I will have lost a kit myself."

Before anyone could make an inquiry, Ravage turned and strode off.

Sensing that time was short, Shockwave drew from a chest compartment a black and yellow cassette. The cassette leaped from his hands, growing and transforming into Buzzsaw. Buzzsaw landed hard on the ground with a scuttling of metal claws and wings on the floor, but he quickly righted himself and looked about with predatory alertness. Shockwave plucked Jess up off the floor and set her down on the large hawk-bot's back.

"Remember, Buzzsaw," Shockwave instructed. "Do not let anyone see you, and do _not _drop her."

Buzzsaw screeched to show his understanding and Shockwave pulled a lever on the wall. The floor below Buzzsaw and Jess dropped open and the two plummeted through the air instantly. Jess yipped in excitement and fear and clutched the break in between the bird's armor as the wind flew by them and threatened to rip her away. For a long moment, Jess was filled with the type of elation one can only get when their lives are threatened by a massive drop. This, coupled with the thrill of riding such a powerful bird as Buzzsaw, almost made her cocky enough to attempt directing the bird into air acrobats. But common sense told her that Buzzsaw would rather disobey his master than obey a fleshie, as well as her sense of duty to Skynet, held her hands and feet still.

The clouds flew by around them and were suddenly behind, up in the higher atmosphere. The air became warmer and Jess saw a forest below her, broken by a clearing here and there. The largest clearing was where the salt mine headquarters were. Buzzsaw suddenly opened his wings and banked, coming to circle, silently, on the winds as he sought a private niche of the woods to set his passenger down in. Jess lay low against the bird's back as her fear began to beat quickly not in a fall's adrenaline rush, but in the fear of the trial to come.

She had made a vow to protect Ferrofluid and Skynet, but would that vow be kept in the wake of Breaker Laboratories' sick and powerful intellect?


	30. Claw Machine From Hell

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 30: Claw Machine From Hell**

Buzzsaw had personally flown Jess down to the coordinates that the Decepticon party had gone to. Under the disguise of the invisibility device, Jess had successfully followed the Decepticon party to the salt mine base. It was some what of a rush, she had to admit, to be standing with in arm's length of a Decepticon and not be acknowledged by them simply because she could not be seen. She was there to hear Megatron's orders to split his party up and she had been torn between two decisions; go to the Autobots ahead of time and warn them about the Decepticons, or keep to her word with the 'Waves and play guardian angel for Ferrofluid and Skynet?

She had considered quickly and realized that there was no way she knew where the Autobots were or how she could get to them in time to warn them about the Decepticons. Thus she took the choice that she had more control with, which led to why she was standing in a vacant corner of a salt mine elevator with a party of Decepticon Efforts and one famous second-in-command Seeker as they traveled miles beneath the ground.

Her unseen eyes almost bulged in amazement as she watched the Transformer-formed Efforts power down into their human forms, drawing a grimace from Starscream.

"Why are you powering down?" Starscream asked, "Don't you think that if this elevator was made for Transformers that there might be Transformer-sized threats below?"

"We do not know what this elevator was made for exactly, Starscream," Mextron corrected, adgusting his coat. "For all we know, this elevator was created to lower some large equipment. Skynet, do you detect any unidentified minds in the vicinity?"

"Negative," Skynet stated.

"Why don't you just ask him if he hears anyone in his head," Smartmouth asked, rolling her eyes. "It's simpler."

"Because then I'm asking him if he's like Blitzwing," Mextron replied coolly, jerking a thumb at the only adult Effort of the party.

Jess barely suppressed a snort of laugher that the other people let out at Blitzwing's confused look. Blitzwing's face twitched and he suddenly released an enormous Cheshire-cat grin.

"Ooh, good one, boy!" Blitzwing said in a high-pitched voice. Then his face darkened in an angry scowl as he snarled, **"But make a crack about me like that again and I'll break your little skull!"**

The humor disappeared from Jess as she scowled in confusion.

_People said that Blitzwing was schizophrenic, didn't they?_ She remembered.

At that moment, she detected a different tone in the machinery lowering their platform into the ground. An instant later, the elevator came to a large, clanging, shaky halt. The elevator shaft opened up into a broad, high, square dirt tunnel carved into the dirt. Judging by the smoothness of the ground, many people had tread down this tunnel. The tunnel was lit by a series of simple, old light bulbs wired up on the wall and laced into the ground on either side, making a trail into the darkness ahead. After a long moment of waiting for something to happen, Mextron stepped forward.

"Any booby-traps or extra tricks, Ferrofluid?" Mextron asked.

Ferrofluid's eyes slowly moved across the room beneath his sun glasses then shook his head.

"No, it's clear," Ferrofluid replied.

"Well then, let's go," Mextron said.

Mextron led the Decepticons' way. Jess followed a moment later, stepping as lightly as she could in her heavy steel-toed boots with a hand on Pointblank.

As they went deeper into the mine, the tunnel widened more and more until they were walking through an enormous cavern that had once been full of salt deposits, among other minerals, but had long since been blown from their holdings in the earth and now was supported only by pillars of rock that had been skillfully left un-blasted. The ceiling was astonishingly high over head, making Starscream look up and try reaching the ceiling, but it was well out of his reach, being thrice higher than his height. The entire place was freakishly silent. All over the place, evidence of previous visitors could be seen, from trash to even some spare junk furniture

Now that Jess tried listening, she even felt somewhat afraid of the silence. She had had a lot of action in the past months following the start of the Revived War, always filling her head with sounds; explosions, laser fire, gun shots, screaming of the dead and dying, enraged roars, screeching machinery, transforming beeps and growls, rocketing jets, shouting orders. Even in times of peace; the wind in the trees, the rustle of grass, bugs gossiping in the undergrowth, the occasional announcing bark of a stray dog or the annoyed yowl of cat, people speaking as they passed by on the street with shoes of all types clopping on the sidewalk while the cars and trucks passed by on the road with tired, dull sighs of engines and growls of muscle cars while music drifted everywhere, whether it be from a fellow Effort's room, a passing road vehicle, or in an official building of some sort. But here: Silence; An absolute silence so strong that the tapping of the Efforts' feet on the dirt floor sounded rude and unwanted. Starscream's loud clomping metal boots sounding like a sacrilegious burp in a cathedral.

_And this is what it is, isn't it?_ Jess realized. _A place free of war or conflict, where,_ she cast an eye at a couch pushed against a pillar where someone had left a bag of clothes, _people of all backgrounds can come to for safety and peace. It's so silent, so untouched by politics or war, so-so…_ She felt something twist in her heart in longing.

_Free…_ she finished.

Empty bottles, crushed cans, and all sorts of trash littered the floor, suggesting that life had once been here and had made much merriment here, as well. A couple of times, Jess saw a dead vehicle, such as an ancient school bus, van, or truck, and even a couch or mattress or two tucked away in the shadows. Peering through the gloom of the dark caves, she saw where people had carved numbers and names into the columns, creating somewhat spooky white scratches in the largely smooth column. Almost no columns escaped the infection of what appeared to be youthful graffiti spray-painted on the rock. Smartmouth asked the question she was forming in her head.

"What do those markings mean?" the Decepticon femme asked.

"It's Russian," Ferrofluid answered, "The numbers act as markers; coordinates so that the miners can find their way back, when this mine was active, at least. The lettering and spray paint appeared to be the work of numerous teenagers. Judging by the dates and names I see in these spray paints and carvings, this mine has been abandoned for at least twenty five years and the headquarters of teenager activity from miles around. I see that youth come from as far as Moscow to enjoy their time here. They keep praising 'the Underground Kingdom'; that must be their nickname for this place."

He paused and tilted his head to look straight up at the ceiling.

"Well, what do you know," he commented, "Someone managed to spray paint their name up _there_, too."

"Boring," Starscream huffed, "Who cares what these brats do in their spare time? Look, we've been walking for at least ten minutes now and there is clearly nothing here, so why don't we go back and kick some Autobot aft before it's all gone?"

"We have to scout out these mines to ensure that there is no enemy activity here," Mextron said, stopping. The rest of the party stopped as well. "But I see your logic; it will be impossible to scout out the entire mine together and on foot. Ferrofluid, do you think that this cavern can handle having some low-flying jets rocketing around in it?"

"We easily have… enough tons of earth over head to make you cringe in fear for your safety," Ferrofluid said quickly. "As long as you are careful not to tempt it with excessive sonic blasts and explosions, we should be fine."

"Alright, you heard him," Mextron assuming Transformer form and reverting immediately to his angelic winged jet mode. "Stay below the sound barrier and don't crash into anything. Spread out and report anything out of the ordinary!"

Ferrofluid assumed his helicopter form while Starscream, Smartmouth, and Blitzwing became jets and flew away in different directions. Jess flinched as the enormous roar the rockets created as the jets streaked away in the darkness of the mines, away from the path way of light bulbs in the ceiling, kicking up dirt and wind where they went. Jess hid herself behind a pillar so that the dirt would not cast against her invisible form and reveal her to the others. After a moment, the wind died down and the dirt settled to the floor again. After a moment, Skynet, the only Effort who had not powered up into Transformer form, turned to the pillar where Jess was hiding.

"It's okay," he called softly; "We're alone now."

Realizing that Skynet knew was she there, Jess found the small square device that rendered her invisible and pressed the sole button on it. She reappeared in a crackle of energy, becoming translucent before fully visible and stepping into full view of Skynet.

"You escaped?" Skynet asked, approaching.

"Soundwave and Shockwave wanted to keep an eye on you without directly fighting Megatron," Jess chuckled. "So we struck a deal."

Her eye brows rose up in surprise when Skynet suddenly hugged her.

"I missed you," Skynet whispered.

"So did I," Jess said, returning the hug even as she realized that she meant it. She broke the hug and asked, "But the others--?"

"With the cloaking device and my mind shielding we can keep you from being detected," Skynet replied. "I'm doing that now to keep the others from seeing us. As far as they know, I'm looking for anything interesting with them."

Jess turned as one of the Efforts streaked by in the distance in jet form, leaving brief golden streaks of flame and light in the darkness before disappearing back into the abyss of the mines.

"Everything here's interesting," Jess chuckled, "I mean, look at all that stuff!" She exclaimed, waving a hand towards where a group of trucks had been parked in an outward facing circle with a canvas propped in the center, making a sort of tent complex. "It's like entire _villages_ have lived down here!"

"The probability of that is very high," Skynet agreed with a nod, "People could have moved down here to escape the dangers of the surface world, especially when the Decepticon threat was so high in the original war—"

"Skynet!" Jess gasped, "How can you talk that way about your own side?"

Skynet hesitated, thinking of an answer, before responding, "The other Decepticon Efforts and I… you know we lived a harsh life under Breaker Laboratory custody, yes?"

Jess remembered the day Skynet had shared his memories with her, giving her a glimpse of the cruelties the traitor science league had bestowed upon Skynet and his comrades.

"All we want is to be kept safe," Skynet said softly. "Autobots will not trust us, humans will despise us, and Breaker Laboratories will clearly kill us. And while the Decepticons are disgusted with us…"

"They are the least of the evils," Jess finished, understanding. She nodded, "I see."

Suddenly, an idea struck her from a long ago memory, back in Transport City, before the war had hardly even started. She remembered her and the other Efforts' sixteenth birthday party, when Max had attempted to talk Benjamin into running away with him for the school year just to live and be free. It hardly seemed to be connected to the current situation, but it gave Jess an idea…

"Maybe you can just… runaway?" Jess inquired.

She couldn't see Skynet's eyes through his red visor, but the way he turned his head told her that he was looking at her.

"You and the other Efforts can change your looks, your identities, and just run away," Jess suggested. "Make your selves look human, and run away to, I don't know, New York City, or Beijing, Tokeyo, Australia, any where! Just run away and start your lives somewhere else! It's easier to start a life on Earth than you think, just find a job where people won't ask too many questions and build your life from there—"

"But is it _truly_ that easy?" Skynet asked. "Is it _truly_ that easy to just shed the skins we've been wearing for so long and become another person? Is it so easy to just escape Megatron's sight when he knows very well that we are assets to his army? Would Megatron _let_ us go?"

To this, Jess had no answer and could only hang her head. Skynet held her hand and they both stared at it, knowing sadly that they could never truly be together; not until one or others' kind were dead.

It was at that moment that they heard approaching machinery. They looked up in surprise. Jess' hand removed itself from Skynet's and quickly activated the cloaking device as she stepped back into the shadows. A moment later, Scarletclaw came running down the path of light, dragging Benjamin with her. She stopped in front of Skynet and dropped the limp Benjamin to the ground and danced from paw to paw nervously.

"Come _on_!" she whined, "Where are the booby traps? I got a whole slag pot of Autobots on my tail that needs a beating!"

Skynet leaned to the side to look around Anne and saw an entire troop of vehicle-formed Autobots charging after Scarletclaw with a certain temperamental ambulance in the lead. The ambulance skidded to a halt and transformed into Ratchet.

"Anne!" Ratchet cried out, "Please, stop! It's me, Ratchet!"

But Ratchet had set him self up and Mextron came from behind, transforming into robot mode in mid-flight and snatching Ratchet up as he flew on, sailing right over the heads of Skynet and Scarletclaw. Jet-formed Blitzwing barrel rolled between the columns three seconds behind Mextron and released a stream of ice on the Autobots below. The Autobots just barely managed to transform and dive out of the freezing path of ice that swept over the ground, turning a large part of it into an icy wonder land and frosting over the light bulbs beneath it.

Smartmouth transformed a little off into the shadows and grinned devilishly as her shoulder guns dropped and aimed themselves at Bumblebee. Ferrofluid reflected her grin as he, too, turned into robot form and flared his claws. They may have not had anything personal against the Autobots, but their inner Decepticon could just never say no to some acton.

"Alright," Smartmouth whooped, "Some action!"

"Took the words right out of my mouth, honey," Scarletclaw snickered, lowering her self before pouncing forward, making a bee-line for Luna Badge.

Prowl tackled Bumblebee out of the way as Smartmouth released a shower of shoulder-mounted null cannon fires on him. Ferrofluid flung his claws out and his arms suddenly extended from the elbow, zipping around a pillar to come at Jazz. Jazz cussed as he lifted his gun up to deflect the blow.

"Slag," Jazz growled, "These kids got powers?"

"Time to test a new upgrade or two," Tiestowing said, flaring out his fins.

"I volunteer!" Random Blitzwing whooped, tackling Tiestowing from the side in robot form. "Tiestowing!" Jazz shouted fearfully.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't hurt my little brother, much!"

Tiestowing crashed into a column in the darkness beyond the light bulb path's light and clattered to the ground unconscious. Blitzwing flew around in a U-turn and came at Optimus Prime, striking the trucker-robot in the chest with both feet. Optimus fell to the ground as Blitzwing did a back flip in the air, switching to Hot Head. Hot Head, for once, didn't say anything as he hovered and released a river of flame down upon the Autobots below. The Autobots just barely managed to help each other out of the way of the flame.

Amethyst, mean while, had just barely drawn her shield in time to deflect Scarletclaw's pounce and was on her back, using both her mini-lance and her shield to block off Scarletclaw's vicious claws.

"Anne, come on girl, snap out of it!" Amethyst begged. "I know you can be mean, but this isn't you!"

"Shut up!" Scarletclaw hissed, "Being an Autobot is stupid and a waste of time! More 'bad guys' are just gonna come and kill you anyway, so why not join a _winning_ team?"

Amethyst flung Scarletclaw off of herself and rolled to her feet. Scarletclaw easily landed on all four feet and hissed at her opponent.

"This isn't a game, Anne, it's a war!" Amethyst shouted. "This isn't something with a winning or loosing team; everyone loosed in the end, _everyone!"_

Scarletclaw's optics flared in anger as her dainty muzzle lifted up in an ugly snarl. Her tail whipped about behind her before aiming its tip over her head and at Amethyst. The tip opened up and glowed a brightly red briefly before shooting a reddish pink laser ball at Amethyst.

"My name is _Scarletclaw!!!_" the feline screeched.

Amethyst gasped and flung herself out of the way of the shot, but was still clipped on her heel. The main force of the shot collided with the pillar behind her, exploding a nasty large chunk of it.

"H-How--?" Amethyst stammered, seeing the ruined pillar.

"The Decepticons got me some _upgrades_," Scarletclaw snickered. "And you know what else?"

She crouched and leaped high in the air.

"They also taught me how to _transform!"_

Her front paws came together in front of her and her back paws came together in the back while her head fused to her front legs and her ears narrowed and turned back oddly, becoming the front wheels and handle bar of a sleek red and white motorcycle. Metal wheels unsheathed from the 'cycle as it landed and the red head lights on the front of its sharp muzzle over the front metallic wheel glowed energetically. Scarletclaw's tail unsheathed itself from the back of the black leather seat it had as she began driving around Amethyst.

"No…" Amethyst whispered, forcing herself to her feet.

"Yes!" Scarletclaw whooped, opening fire.

Skynet stood to the side, watching the battle unfold in front of them with an almost apathetic air. Jess was kneeling on the ground in her invisible state, trying to revive Benjamin. Skynet scanned the land about him telepathically, detecting exactly how many people were currently in the salt mine. Then he noticed that three people were not in the main battle before him…

Reaching a hand over his shoulder, he drew his two Cassetticons from the sub space slot near his shoulders and spun around, throwing them into the air.

"Rockpunch, Suspicion, attack!" he shouted.

The two Cassetticons transformed into robot-mode in mid-air, landing on the ground in front of the Lamborghini Twins that had been about to sneak up on Skynet.

"Oh, wow, he's good," Sideswipe muttered, taking a step back in surprise.

"Come on, they're just Cassetticons! Smash them!" Sunstreaker snarled, lifting a foot.

"Rock and roll!" Rockpunch whooped, punching the underside of Sunstreaker's foot.

Crying out, Sunstreaker was knocked hard onto his back. Sideswipe watched in dumb amazement as Rockpunch leaped onto Sunstreaker's chest, ready to beat him up. He was occupied almost immediately by Suspicion as he formed an ice lance in hand and flung it at the red Autobot.

"Here we go again with the Cassetticons," Sideswipe muttered before shooting at Suspicion.

In the shadows to Skynet's right, Wheeljack shot at Skynet. Still watching his Cassetticons, Skynet bared a palm in Wheeljack's direction. The rubble cast down from the destruction of the pillar by Scarletclaw reared up off the ground and flew at Wheeljack, raining down on him hard and knocking him down. Wheeljack's gun fell from his hands, only to hover back up and aim itself at Wheeljack's head. Jess gasped at seeing this and deactivated her cloaking device.

"Skynet, stop!" she shouted, drawing the telepath's eyes in her direction. "You said you only fight for survival, so please, stop!"

Skynet stared at her for a moment and simply nodded. Wheeljack's hovering gun lowered itself to the floor where it remained, harmless. Skynet allowed his Cassetticons to continue to fight the Lamborghini Twins as he knelt beside Jess, checking over the wound in Benjamin's shoulders.

"Aren't you going to stop _them?_" Jess asked, looking at Rockpunch and Suspicion.

"The Twins can handle it," Skynet assured. "We have to get Benjamin to a doctor and safety—"

At that moment, something strange happened. All they heard was a quick hiss, harmless and pointless in itself, but it was enough to make everyone slow in their fighting in surprise. Was it the hiss of poisonous gases being released, the tiny hum of a charging weapon, or the hiss of some viper? Before they could determine what they heard, the source suddenly flew from the darkness; a giant three-fingered claw on the end of a long cable, all a simple, business-like grey metal.

The claw snapped around Skynet. A fourth claw flicked out of the main claw and pierced Skynet in the back of the head, making him stiffen and cry out in pain before going limp. As quick as it happened, the claw withdrew into the darkness, taking Skynet with it. The lights went out a second later. There were more hisses and yelps as Jess and Benjamin, too, were taken by other claws, as if someone were playing a weird game of the stuffed animal Claw Machine.

Everyone froze in their battle curiously. Ferrofluid withdrew his claws from where he was trying to strangle Jazz and hummed in confusion. Suddenly, another claw jumped out of the darkness, larger than the first and seized Ferrofluid.

"Help--!" Ferrofluid cried out before a fourth claw flickered out, stabbed him in the back of the neck, and dragged him, unconscious, into the darkness.

"Ferrofluid!" Smartmouth yelled. Yet another claw appeared from the darkness and seized her ankle, dragging her, screaming, into the darkness.

"What's going _on_ here!?" Ironhide yelled. A claw attempted to seize him, but he managed to shoot it away.

"I don't know, Ironhide," Optimus growled, turning one of his hands into its glowing energon axe form. "But everybody; make a circle, back-to-back!"

A cable-connected claw darted in front of Optimus, making a bee-line to Prowl, but he swung his energon axe down, leaving a streak of orange light in the air, and chopped the cable off. Three more claws leaped from the darkness, all attacking Optimus.

"Yeap, this stinks of Breaker Laboratories, alright," Tiestowing growled, drawing his daggers. "Leave it to them to turn a classic arcade game into the stuff of nightmares."

Now the entire party was forced to begin a dance of blades and dodging to avoid the dozens of metal, cable-connected claws that were leaping from the darkness around them. The lights on the robots danced and flickered over the support columns of the eternal night world that they were trapped in, making things seem more and more chaotic as they fought off their kidnappers.

"What makes you think it's Breaker Labs?" Cold Blitzwing asked.

"Oh, nothing," Amethyst said innocently, "Except, oh, you know, the kidnapping claws, source of a cyber-lock down virus, and, oh, yeah, being settled in an abandoned salt mine in _what was once considered one of the worst communistic hells on Earth!!!"_

"You know, the Soviets were actually on to something—"Blitzwing began.

"Oh, shut up."

Naturally, Blitzwing showed his displeasure by changing his face to the red one of Hot Head so he could shout, **"**_**You**_** shut up, stupid femme!"**

"Cram it down your mouth, ugly!" Amethyst snarled.

"**Annoying little twerp!"**

"Over sized junk head!"

"**Worthless scrap heap!"**

"Wannabe Nazi!"

"**Police pig!"**

"Now _I_ take offense to that!" Prowl spoke up.

"Will you just _shut up_!?" Optimus and Mextron shouted together.

They exchanged looks as everyone looked at them in surprise. They both looked away and resumed battling the claws.

"So, what do these guys _want_ from us, anyway?" Sideswipe asked.

"Knowing the sick bastards Breaker Labs are," Sunstreaker replied, punching a claw into the ground, "They probably want to dissect us and see what makes us tick."

"I can believe that," Wheeljack agreed, shooting out a claw. "Considering those files we hacked off of them concerning Project Smelting—"

"Project Abominations!" Starscream snarled. "That damn _screw up_ of an experiment you Autobots agreed to was a project of _abominations_ and you know it!"

"Go back to being quiet, Starscream," Ratchet ordered, "No one likes your voice."

"You can't boss me around!" Starscream snapped, "Do you realize whose fault is it that we're here now? _Yours!!_ If you stupid Autobots hadn't gotten so stupid and wanted stupid kids that were stupid organics and agreed to those stupid scientists, then the stupid war would have stayed dead and we wouldn't be in this stupid mine fighting off stupid claws from a bunch of stupid, stupid, stupid humans! Do you understand!? This is all _your fault!!!_"

His null cannons spread to point to either side of Starscream. Starscream's jets activated and lifted him off the ground, aiming his foot jets out at the darkness. All his jets and guns suddenly released an overly violent rain of laser shots and fire into the darkness, lighting the mine up quite a bit as numerous darting claws were caught in the fiery outburst. The claws collapsed to the floor in brilliant melting ooze puddles, or flailed about violently, spraying their smelted metal selves all about before withdrawing into the darkness or de-attaching themselves from their cables. For a long moment, the mine was once again peacefully silent, now lit only by lights adorning the Transformers' bodies and their optics. They all exchanged glances then released sighs of relief.

Hot Head Blitzwing's face spun around in a red blur and stopped on the blue face of Cold Blitzwing's.

"Now," he said, "I believe that, due to recent developments, that we must either work together to rescue our kidnapped comrades, or kill each other."

"I'm all for the killing," Sunstreaker growled, holding up his gun.

"No, Sunstreaker, he's right," Optimus growled. "Jess and Benjamin have been taken and Breaker Laboratories is a shared enemy between us. We can't afford to battle each other."

"We're in good shape," Ironhide snarled, aiming his gun at Mextron, "Let's kill the creeps!"

But before Ironhide could begin their battle once more, an entire wall of claws leaped from the darkness, wrapping around the Transformers and seizing them mercilessly before dragging them, shouting, into the darkness.

**AN: Anyone see the TFA reference with Starscream's speech?**


	31. Breaker Labs, Breaker Hell

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 31: Breaker Labs, Breaker Hell**

"Michelangelo to Optimus, come in, Optimus!" Michelangelo called. He grimaced when there was no answer and pressed down on the communicator button, shouting into the microphone, "Michelangelo to Optimus, come in, Optimus, what's your status? Optimus!"

"Something's wrong," Skyfire said. "Optimus would never ignore a call and would never be distracted this long, even if he were in battle. He _knows_ the importance of keeping in touch with his mechs!"

"Well, what are we going to do?" MJ asked, "Optimus' signal was last seen entering the salt mine with the others, but the ground's blocking the signal and he's not responding to our calls!"

"Perhaps Alias can use her UCP?" Skyfire suggested.

MJ nodded and exited the cock pit. In the main bay, Alias was sitting on the floor, twiddling her thumbs nervously while Sam stood off to the side, apparently deep in thought. Both looked up when Michelangelo spoke to them.

"Alias," MJ asked, "We've lost contact with the ground party. Can you use your UCP to find out what happened?"

Alias' optics immediately gained their strange glow once more while her hair-like antennae rose slightly.

"Locations of Autobot ground party: Confirmed," she said in her electronic tone. "Autobots are approximately three miles below ground in underground laboratories currently being separated and set into different rooms for experimentation."

"What—experimentation!?" MJ exclaimed.

"Yes; Autobot ground party was kidnapped by Breaker Laboratory approximately ten minutes ago using highly intelligent, private catch-and-retrieve technology."

"I knew it," MJ growled. To the ceiling, he called, "Father, we have to land and rescue them!"

"I can't," Skyfire said sadly as his human-sized hologram appeared beside MJ. "While the entrance Optimus and the others took to get to the mines was large enough for them, it's not for me. If any of us is going down there, it will have to be Alias."

Alias' optics instantly dimmed as her hair drooped and she whimpered fearfully. Sam's eyes, though, brightened as he came to stand by Alias. He placed one hand on her shoulder and the other jerked a thumb to his chest.

"Alright then, if the part-human robot gal with the personality of a four year old is going down there, then I'm going, too!" Sam declared. "If you wanna stop me, then you're gonna have to knock me out!"

MJ and Skyfire's hologram exchanged looks.

"I would _like_ to say no, that we should wait," Skyfire said. "But then again; this mission is that of a personal importance: Rescuing our kidnapped Efforts and hence, is not valid for military back up, so calling in Autobot reinforcements is a no-go." He sighed reluctantly. "I'm afraid that you two are our only back up, in spite of being unskilled and innocent—"

"Unskilled!?" Sam snarled, "Drop open the bay door and you'll see how unskilled I am; I'll land without breaking one bone!"

To this, Skyfire chuckled while a sad, but amused smirk crossed his hologram's features. "That won't be necessary. Prepare, now: I will drop you off as close as I can to the mines without your detection. Michelangelo, will you be joining the rescue team?"

"No, father; I'm staying with you," MJ replied.

"That's smart," Alias encouraged, "A pilot must stay with his ship!"

"Well, I don't know about _pilot_," MJ said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously while he blushed.

"Yeah, yeah, flirt later, drop now," Sam urged impatiently.

- - - -

"Megatron to Starscream, come in Starscream. Megatron to Starscream, answer Starscream!" Megatron snapped into his communicator.

"Umm, maybe something happened to them, sir?" Thundercracker suggested.

"You mean they had some action and didn't even tell us?" Skywarp asked, his face falling. "Aww man, that's so like Starscream to take all the fun!"

"Then you can go join the fun yourself," Megatron snarled, kicking the two Seekers towards the elevator shaft building. "Report to me when you find out why the slag that idiot isn't answering me!"

Thundercracker pouted, but Skywarp dashed on ahead, whooping excitedly about the chance at action. Megatron looked down at Cartwheel and Shadowleap then looked away again, impatiently waiting for a report to come. As sun went down, a couple of small child figures came out of the woods and went straight to the elevator building. Megatron allowed them to pass and continued waiting. Finally, when the sun was completely down, he turned and held a hand out to the little Efforts.

"Come," he ordered, "We will go down ourselves."

Shadowleap and Cartwheel exchanged nervous looks, but obediently climbed into Megatron's giant black hand. Megatron stood and, children in hand, went to the elevator building.

- - - -

"Commander Shockwave," one of the pilots said. "We have spotted Autobot Skyfire circling the skies over the area Lord Megatron's party is in. Permission to shoot him down with long-range guns?"

Shockwave stared at the pilot's radar screens for several minutes. Finally, he shook his head.

"Negative," he said. "Lord Megatron can handle anything that comes his way."

"Very well, sir," the pilot said reluctantly, clearly against this decision. "If that is what you believe…"

Soundwave and Shockwave exchanged hidden looks, but said nothing.

- - - -

"Yo, Sunny, wake up, bro!"

There was a loud _bong_ noise when something struck Sunstreaker upside the head, making his processor grudgingly fire up again. He opened his good optic and glared up at Sideswipe from his position lying on the floor. They appeared to be in a bland white room.

"What do you want, Sideswipe?" he growled.

Random Blitzwing appeared standing over Sideswipe's shoulder and whooped, "He wants to ask you where you put your other optic!"

"Slag, not you again!" Sunstreaker shouted, jumping to a crouching position. He reached for his gun, but was dismayed to find it gone. When he looked at Blitzwing again, he realized that for once, a Decepticon didn't have his gun when he didn't. Behind Blitzwing, he also noted, was a large pair of dark grey metal doors.

"What's going on here?" Sunstreaker growled.

"We all got dragged away into the creepy darkness, horror-film style, by a bunch of metal claws, got knocked off line, and woke up here," Sideswipe summarized. "Now in locked in a cell with one screwed up Decepticon and all I'm waiting for is the creepy puppet on a tricycle to come in and tell us that we have to kill someone or maim ourselves before we're killed in an extremely brutal way."

"You've been watching too many movies," Sunstreaker told Sideswipe. To Blitzwing he growled, "Alright, freak, tell us what you've done to the other Autobots and why you've brought us here or I'm going to smash all three of your faces in."

Random's face blurred and was replaced by Hot Head, **"I'd like to see you try it, Auto-scum!"**

"I actually think that it'll be an improvement," Sideswipe snickered.

"**Why don't I remove your optic?"** Hot Head snarled at Sideswipe before switching to Random, "Then you two can _really_ be twins!"

"If it's an eye for an eye, as humans say," Sunstreaker said. "Then I'll remove an optic from every one of your faces if you hurt my brother. Then I'll remove the other ones if you don't tell me what you and your scrap heap _pals_ did with Optimus and the others!"

Cold Blitzwing appeared and said in a sincere tone, "Please, listen to me when I tell you that I do not know where your friends are or how we got here! I was attacked and taken, just the same as you."

"Bull slag, freak," Sunstreaker snarled, taking a step forward as his fists clenched. But Sideswipe stopped him.

"Wait, Sunny, I think he's telling the truth!" Sideswipe hissed.

"A Decepticon? Telling the truth?" Sunstreaker asked, "Bah, when humans transform--!"

Sideswipe and Blitzwing both stared at Sunstreaker with expressions that clearly showed how stupid that last statement just was. They both looked away and face palmed. Sunstreaker stared back at them, also running his last statement through his head, before looking away grudgingly.

"Okay, so if the Decepticons didn't bring us here, then who did?" he grumbled.

"Breaker Laboratories is my bet," Sideswipe said. "Those guys are more twisted than a double agent. We've tried to open the doors, but they're locked and too strong to break down."

"I've been scanning the door numerous times since our failed attempts," Blitzwing said, looking at the doors as he rubbed is blue chin. "I believe that there is a way we can break it down."

"How?" the Lamborghini Twins asked.

"If I repeatedly freeze it and you two bashed into it between ice blasts, it just might make the doors brittle enough to open."

"Like I'm going to do that?" Sunstreaker asked, "You'll just freeze us once the door's down and shoot us dead!"

"Perhaps, but we're not going to go anywhere just standing here arguing," Blitzwing replied.

"He has a point, bro," Sideswipe told Sunstreaker. "We can't just sit here and do nothing."

"I promise you on my word of honor that I will not attack you… at least until we are reunited with out own faction members," Blitzwing assured.

"What does your word of honor matter to me?" Sunstreaker hissed.

Cold Blitzwing's face warped around, revealing the too-familiar grinning jack-o-lantern face of the Random aspect. This side of Blitzwing flung his hands up and exclaimed, "Nothing, so you might as well bet nothing on nothing!"

Random Blitzwing found this humorous and placed his hands on his hips, leaning back as he burst out into wild laughter and the Lamborghini Twins exchanged looks. At this point, both realized that they would pay just about anything to get out of the room before Blitzwing slipped into a psycho killer mode.

"He has a point," Sideswipe whispered, "In a strange, crude, twisted sort of way…"

Sunstreaker nodded and said to Blitzwing, "Okay, we'll work together for the time being."

"Okay!" Random Blitz whooped, "On three! _Eine! Zwei! Drei_!

He leaped back as his jets activated in excitement, making him hover in the air while his shoulder cannons dropped and blasted the door with ice. The ice swept over the door in less than a second, creating a crystal wall on it. The Lamborghini Twins threw themselves forward and struck their shoulders on the door, thus beginning their rare team-up with a Decepticon.

- - - -

Jazz woke up running for his life, literally. He had come on line in a jumbled cloud of sound and images before his sensory antennae straightened themselves out, revealing something he did _not_ want to wake up to. He had been forced into car mode and had been rolling down the steeply sloped sides of an enormous metal funnel. The bottom opening was netted with red lasers over several layers of metal-shearing blades spinning about, ready to turn Jazz into so much metallic confetti.

Obviously not wishing to meet such a painful, quick death, Jazz had basically begun turning his wheels and had not stopped yet. Looking around, he noticed that with him was Bumblebee, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Ironhide. All were in vehicle form driving as quickly as they could to use their centripetal force (or whatever it was; physics was Preceptor's field), to keep from sliding down to death. He spotted Ratchet transform into robot, but the sides of the giant funnel were too steep and slick and blades flew from the walls in an attempt to decapitate him, so he transformed back immediately. Soon, they were able to control themselves and drive in a line together around the funnel.

"What sick slag stick thought _this_ thing up?" Ratchet asked, calling out over the sound of the chopping blades, once they were together.

"Who else?" Wheeljack asked, "Breaker Laboratories! The Decepticons are _way_ too stupid to be this creative."

"I don't care who put us here," Ironhide declared, "I want _out_ of it!"

"I don't see any opening," Bumblebee said.

"Everyone spread out and look for any hidden opening," Ratchet ordered. "Stay out of that death trap in the pit hole!"

With a goal in mind, the cars split up, closely scrutinizing the floor as they sought a hidden escape from this place.

- - - -

Meanwhile, Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Ferrofluid and Smartmouth found themselves in a similar predicament. A quick electric zap for each of them made them wake up in jet or helicopter form in the middle of an enormous dim room.

"Where the heck are we?" Thundercracker asked.

_Crack-BOOM!!!_

Lightening struck the floor right behind them, making the jets all take to the air with frightened shouts. With in moments lightening was cracking and crashing all around them, generating from the bare walls, ceiling, and floor and attempting to electrocute them. Only their quick reflexes and flight maneuvers preserved their Sparks.

"Damnit," Smartmouth snapped, "What do the Breaker Labs bastards hope to achieve through this!?"

Skywarp spoke a word after every time he teleported out of the way of a lightening bolt.

"Maybe—they—want—to—see—how—long—we—can—fly—at—top—abilities—before—we—crash."

"That's a stupid idea, Skywarp," Thundercracker scoffed, flying upside down carelessly.

"Why?" Skywarp asked.

"Because you suggested it," Starscream replied.

"How the slag do we get out of here!?" Smartmouth screeched.

"Don't you think I would have left if I had known that!?" Starscream demanded.

"I didn't think you would have the processor capacity," Smartmouth snickered.

"Skywarp, teleport out of here," Thundercracker ordered.

Skywarp disappeared in a purple flash. A purple streak was briefly being seen streaking to the wall as a warped, zipper noise sounded out. A loud sound similar to air bubbles moving violently in a trapped container sounded out and Skywarp appeared with a painful sounding crack, recoiling back from the wall in a purple flash.

"Gah!!" Skywarp wailed, "I can't! There's some sort of force field—"

"Well then, let's do it the old fashioned way," Starscream snarled, aiming his cannons at the wall. "Shoot!"

"Never going to work, _Daddy_," Smartmouth sighed. "If it can reflect Skywarp, it can reflect your cannon shots."

"Watch me, wench!" Starscream snarled, shooting the wall.

Knowing Starscream's luck, it shouldn't surprise anyone to be told that Starscream's shots were reflected right back into his cock pit-formed face.

- - - -

Amethyst woke up, gun in hand and screaming a war cry. But no enemy waited for her; she was in human form, clad in the default black and white uniform that reflected her Transformer paint job. She was in a room resembling an oval with lights imbedded in the center side walls. Beside her, Tiestowing, also in human form, sat up as he, too, woke up, and rubbed his human arms. He yawned and looked around, then looked at Amethyst and smiled.

"Well," he said, putting his arm around Amethyst's arm, "It's nice to see that we have some _alone time_, beautiful. So, how does twenty minutes of foreplay and thirty minutes of action sound?"

Amethyst growled in disgust as she smacked Tiestowing hard enough to make him over balance and fall to the floor. She got to her feet, holstering her gun as she looked around for a door and found none.

"Damnit," she growled, "Where are we?"

"In a prison cell," Tiestowing replied, standing up.

"How do you know?" Amethyst asked.

Tiestowing pointed to a dark rounded corner of the decent-sized room and sure enough, there was a bench with some chains attached to the wall over it. A dark stain was splattered between the chains and on the bench.

"Slag," Amethyst muttered.

"I _would_ crack a dirty joke about the chains," Tiestowing admitted, "But that's way too much blood."

"They got us in here, so we can get out…" Amethyst muttered, looking around, "But how did they do it without a _door_?"


	32. Broken Minds

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 32: Broken Minds**

Optimus, meanwhile, was having a far less pleasant awakening. He was first aware of his arms pinned to the wall high over his head. Then something suddenly bit into his side, sending agonizing cold and hot pain crackling up and down his left side. His blue optics flared to life as his engine yelled in pain.

"Rise and shine, Optimus," a voice chuckled darkly.

Looking around, Optimus found himself in a less-than-pleasant position, to say the least. He was clasped by his ankles and wrists to a wall in what appeared to be a very large laboratory room. Thirty long tables laden with everything from computers to chemistry to welding sets filled the room floor. Optimus was pinned to the wall in the center of one of the longer-side walls. Many humans, perhaps thirty in all, were bustling about in uniform white lab coats, entering data in computers, taking notes, and doing all manner of tasks. Many of them glanced over uneasily at Optimus, but then they would go back to their business as if he were another piece of equipment that did not require special attention.

To his right and in the corner across the way an enormous chamber made of strange turquoise-glowing metal bars was made. In side, Decepticon Mextron was in robot form with his hands chained over his head and his ankles chained together. Devices in the corners of the chamber frequently spat white light at Mextron, making him buck about and cry out like a wounded bird against his bonds. The way his unbound wings beat frantically against the walls of the chamber in an attempt to take down the corner shooters, and how he sounded so much like a dying bird of prey made something in Optimus twist in concern for Mextron, in spite of his alliance.

"Enjoyed your nap, Mr. Prime?"

Looking down, Optimus saw Dr. Moriguchi standing in front of him. The way the scarred human smirk up at Optimus made Optimus' Spark hot with indignity and rage.

"What have you _done_, Moriguchi?" Optimus snapped, "We trusted you, we _protected you_ from the Decepticons, from Unicorn, from every nameless horror we were forced to face alone, and _this_ is how you repay us; by chaining us up for your own sick experiments and for what, world domination!!?"

"Not world," Moriguchi said carelessly, "_Universal_. And besides, I've expressed my gratitude enough by giving you your beloved _children_ and letting you have sixteen years of blissfully wonderful and peaceful life, haven't I? There is balance for everything, Mr. Optimus—"

Mextron suddenly screeched loudly, cutting Moriguchi off.

"What are you _doing_ to him??" Optimus exclaimed, casting his optics towards Mextron's chamber.

"We want to see if there's a way we can force an Effort to revert to human form from Transformer form," Moriguchi explained easily. "In case our army comes across human-Transformer foes in the future."

"Your army…?" Optimus asked.

"Breaker Laboratories Office of Domination, BLOOD" Moriguchi said, "Ever heard of it? Yes, you see, Breaker Laboratories' initial board of happy-crappy saps chasing after butterflies, peace, and all that fluffy _bull shit_ have _retired_ after 'encouragement' from certain individuals who are ready to use their power for something _so_ much more. We just used the trust they had created for us to get what we wanted."

Optimus had had more than enough experience with world-domination forces of all sorts and was quickly connecting the dots in his head. He voiced his conclusions aloud.

"You only created the Efforts as a war weapon," he said. "It makes sense; the small stature and quick minds of humans with the strength and abilities of Transformers would make any creature an amazing soldier."

"Go on," Moriguchi encouraged.

"So you created the Decepticon Efforts, knowing that Decepticons were stronger and more battle prone, but were never able to train them to fight you."

"They had _emotions_, how could we train them? We _tried_ to shut down their emotions, but, alas, all we managed to do was piss them off and over throw us in our main Sahara Desert base."

"And you created the Autobot Efforts to save face, but…"

"But only so that we could study them," Moriguchi went on. "See how they grew, evolved, changed, and develop. Once we were sure that they were successful, we had only to find a serum to make any person an Effort and badda-beem-badda-boom! An army fit to defeat _anyone_! I mean, originally, we just wanted to sell it to the highest bidder, but the power we saw expressed in the test subjects--! Screw getting rich, we could _own_ the banks, _own_ the cities, _own_ the countries, _own_ the world! We began testing on cast outs like run away and streets bums immediately! Only one serum has worked thus far on a fellow now known as Juggernaut, a mostly-human Decepticon Effort who we used the serum on to _coax_ his potential into the open and I, alas, am the only survivor of BLOOD after the other members suffered, mmm, _coincidental accidents._"

"What could you want from us now?" Optimus snarled, "You have data from your Project Smelting—"

"Project Abominations, and what we need from you and the other Transformers, _sir_," Moriguchi sneered, "Are pure Transformer components; we are out of fresh ones. Also…"

Five men came up beside Moriguchi carrying an enormous laser weapon between them.

"We need to _study_ a little more," Moriguchi snickered. "Like if we can reprogram an Autobot into a Decepticon."

"I _almost_ wish that I hadn't stopped the Decepticons from taking over this planet," Optimus grumbled.

"We'll see if we can remove 'almost' from that sentence," Moriguchi said before flicking a switch on the laser machine. A narrow, straight bright green laser ray went from the end of the gun and pierced into Optimus' torso, making him rear back as his engines roared in pain.

- - - -

Benjamin had woken up in a cell identical to Tiestowing's and Amethyst's, with one example: Drones.

Round-bodies with Freddy Krueger claws on the end of long arms and perched on single wheels, the dorky machines proved to be enormous pains to kill as they attacked, attempting to turn Benjamin into so many gallons of chum. Fortunately, he had been blessed to find his sword at his side and used it to fight and battle the drones.

Spin, stab forward while kicking the squat head off of a drone behind. Turn, slice off the arms of a drone, and jump up onto it, making the other drones tear down their comrade to get to Benjamin while he took them out from above. Back flip and landing to spin around and slice open the chest plating, silently letting a sigh of relief escape him when he found that the armor was weak. A drone attacked from behind and with a savage shout, Benjamin spun and stabbed his blade up into the sneak-attacking drone. The blade went up through the bottom section of the drone, going up through its chest components and coming out straight through the top of the head. The drone spat electricity and shook in the grips of a seizure. Benjamin with drew his sword and kicked the drone over. He looked over at all the bodies of the drones littering the floor, panting heavily while blood from numerous scratches stained his shredded clothing.

"God," he panted, whipping some blood from his nose. "What the hell do these guys want from me?"

Metal tapped metal behind Benjamin and he spun around, placing his feet apart and holding his sword up in one hand while the other held a palm out, ready to stop a charger. Behind him, a new drone had appeared, but it was different.

Looking at the new drone, anyone could easily see that he was built as a warrior, and was certainly more specialized than the copies that Benjamin had finished off. While its limbs were largely narrow, widening out into thick, Transformer-like, platform-like boots and thick hands, the way its round-cornered, flat armor fit together suggested the best defense with the best agility. The robot was yellow with black boot soles, finger tips and knuckles, shoulders, and leg and arm joints. A face mask covered its lower face with extending prongs between and under its optics, disappearing to the back of its head. A pair of large black optics stared out from over the mask, but under a pair of sharp, drooping black antennae. The right arm had no lower arm, but a long diamond-colored lance blade that glittered and shimmered in the light like a holy stinger. Dangling from the black and yellow robot's back was a pair of drop-shaped extensions like wings that dangled to its knees, giving the appearance of a cape.

The strange robot stared at Benjamin for several minutes before Benjamin decided that it was safe. He took a step closer, but the drone's antennae perked up. The drone saw the sword in Benjamin's hand and lowered itself in a battle pose, lifting its stinger and fist and planting its feet apart. Benjamin recognized a fight when it was inevitable and nodded. He jumped forward suddenly with a shout and swung at the drone.

The drone jumped up, landing easily on his sword, pinning it to the floor, and swung a leg around, kicking Benjamin in the face and sending him crashing into a wall. Benjamin's head rang not only with the impact, but with surprise. What power and skill!! When he looked up the drone was standing on one end of the sword, making it stand up at an angle. It looked familiar…

The drone stomped on the end of the sword and flicked it up into its hands. This time the alikeness was too much for Benjamin to dismiss or guess.

"Max..?" he whispered, sitting up.

The drone broke Benjamin's sword over its knee before it chuckled, a low, sly, devilish sound, and slowly spun the pieces of Benjamin's sword in its one hand. Ice encompassed Benjamin's insides as he shivered fearfully. Max would never sound like that, not innocent, stupid, funny Max…

**"You like?"** the drone laughed. **"Good upgrade from yellow-head, yeah?"**

"My god, Max, is this—is this your Transformer form?" Benjamin asked, getting to his feet. "It's amazing! But how--?"

**"Masters fixed yellow head up make yellow head big strong Hornet."**

"Wait, Max, why are you talking like that? Why are you fighting for Breaker Labs? I don't understand."

**"Sam boy say that yellow head worthless, says everything that everyone thinking,"** the Max drone said. **"Yellow head called yellow- head Max worthless, that yellow head shouldn't have been born; yellow head sunk Transport City, yellow head killed hundreds when city sunk, yellow head dumb, yellow head worthless. No one listen to yellow head because yellow head too dumb to think good. Yellow head save Ben-boy's life from Sam-man and Ben-boy yell at yellow head for ruining mission! But yellow head useful now; yellow head strong, yellow head fast, yellow head is Hornet!"**

Upon declaring his new name, the Max drone stood tall, as large hornet wings snapped out of his back and buzzed loudly, reflecting the same buzzing war cry that made up Max's voice when he shouted his new name. It was impressive, but it was also horrifying to Benjamin as he stumbled back as he began to understand what happened.

"T-The Break Lab bastards did something to you, didn't they?" he gasped. "T-They changed you some how, broke your spirit, and brainwashed you into being their little attack dog…"

**"No, no brain wash,"** Hornet growled, lowering his yellow metal wings, crossing his arms, and shaking his head. **"Fix; Masters ****fix**** Hornet and make him strong thing worth listening to."**

"Worth listening to…?"

**"Ben-man never listen to yellow head when yellow head warn about Sam man; no one listen. Yellow head just dumb yellow head, remember? But as Hornet, people listen! Hornet important enough to listen to!"**

"Oh my god, you're right," Benjamin muttered, remembering how Max had tried warning Benjamin about Sam on the very first night they let Sam ride with them in Skyfire.

"_He doesn't have to be a Decepticon or an Effort to be a threat," Max pointed out._

"But Max, I had no idea—"

But he _had_ had an idea, hadn't he? He had known not to trust someone so strange, so soon, but he had been so tired that night and so insisting on being the dominant, wise, all-knowing leader that he had refused to acknowledge that he may have been wrong to accept Sam into the crew as a guide.

**"But Ben-man would have listened to yellow head if yellow head were like Jess-girl or Becky-girl, right?"** Hornet snarled as something in him buzzed angrily. **"But no! Because yellow-head was like yellow head, no one listen to yellow head until yellow head gone! Does Ben-man remember when yellow head rescued Ben-man from Sam-man on night of raid when yellow head was taken?"**

"Y-Yes," Benjamin admitted with guilt, "I yelled at you for blowing the raid, but you were… you were saving me from Sam…"

**"No, Ben-man no yell at Hornet; Ben-man yell at ****yellow head****—"**

"Stop talking like that!" Benjamin shouted closing his eyes as guilt began to grow in him like fire. "Stop talking like you're stupid! I _know_ it's you in there, Max! Please, please show me a sign that there's still the same friendly, wild Max I know in there! Please!"

Hornet buzzed angrily in annoyance as he stepped forward, raising his lance-stinger arm. Suddenly, he stopped his optics brightening as he appeared to receive a message from somewhere higher. Nodding, he lowered his arm and approached Benjamin at a calmer pace.

**"Hornet… will… **_**show**_** Ben-man Max,"** Hornet said slowly. **"But Ben-man must come with Hornet."**

Hornet came forward and gently set his lance-stinger arm on Benjamin's shoulder. Benjamin, guilt-ridden by his own past and poor decisions, nodded sadly without thinking through the choice. Hornet took Benjamin's hand in his own metallic one, helping him to his feet. A black rectangle appeared in the wall as a slide of metal slid aside, admitting them into a dark hall. Hornet led Benjamin out of the drone battle room and into the darkness.

- - - -

A cold numbness void of emotion or personal thought encompassed Hornet, framed by a stream of energy that always had him on edge, ready to strike as quick as lightening and revert to being as still as a statue in seconds. This inner framework was not disturbed, even when he saw Ben-man. The Master had ordered him to bring Ben-man in, and bringing him in he was doing. Still, though, something in Hornet told him that he had known this boy once, a long time ago.

Could it be possible? Hornet could not remember life before he woke up in such extreme emotional agony that he would not have eaten or survived, had the Master not appeared and showed him some care. True, the Master had whacked him with an energy-biting cane now and then, and he had been put through many harsh, violent training exercises, but having _any _attention was better than that inner agony he felt upon his first day of real memory nearly three weeks ago. But now, who was this Ben-man? Perhaps his inner sight, an ability he hardly understood or could control, could tell him…

Allowing his body to lead the way to the destination point, Hornet himself disappeared into a tiny pocket somewhere deep in his mind. Here, he began to have visions.

_Many people fought few. One falls and another explodes. White light and explosions everywhere, rendering the world asunder and shattering even his cool shell. What a power! If the Master was successful in his plans, the world was torn asunder. If the Master was not, some other being would leave a scar on this planet worthy of being told in legends for eons to come._

Hornet drew out of the visions. Such melodrama was not for him. Tsk, though, tsk, tsk, tsk; he could _never _get himself to look into the past; only the future.

**AN: Yes, Hornet is a character inspired by Transformer's official character, Wasp, but they are ****not**** the same! Call it a dash of irony.**


	33. Obstacles

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 33: Obstacles**

"Jess, Jess, wake up! Hey, wake up, Jess!"

Jess didn't want to; she loved the attention she was getting. Feeling Skynet's hands brush against her face and shake her gently while his voice, a hansom sound when emotional, called her name over and over again…

"Jess, if you insist on courting relationships like those thoughts, at least make it a two-person deal," Skynet implored.

Reluctantly Jess opened her pale blue eyes and sat up, looking around. She and Skynet were in an oval cell with benches lining the walls. Nearby, Rockpunch and Suspicion were beating at what sounded like a hollow part of the wall. Suspicion looked frustrated at their lack of process, but Rockpunch, on the other hand, was obviously enjoying futilely beating the crap out of an inanimate wall.

"Skynet… the others…" Jess said quietly.

"We appear to have been separated," Skynet replied, "But we have each other and our weapons."

"What about your Cassetticons?" Jess asked, looking over at the two mentioned robots, "What do they think of the, um, _accommodations_?"

"They already know about us," Skynet said, wrapping an arm around Jess' shoulders. "Are you okay?"

In response, Jess flung her arms around Skynet and hugged him hard. Skynet did not hesitate to return the hug. Suspicion noticed this contact and poked Rockpunch in the shoulder. Rockpunch looked at Suspicion and Suspicion had only to point to the Efforts to make Rockpunch look over at the display. Both watched in respectful silence as Skynet and Jess broke apart. Jess, a strong girl, now had her eyes watering unhappily.

"Oh, Skynet!" she whimpered, "I'm so scared! The way those claws just came out of the darkness--! It was like some sort of _horror movie_ and everyone was shooting and then we all got caught and everybody was screaming as we were dragged into the darkness—"

"Shh, shh, it's okay," Skynet whispered, hugging Jess close again. One could not see his face through his red visor and white scarf, but the tender note in his voice was all that was needed to make Jess feel safe, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

"What are we going to do, Skynet?" Jess whimpered, "Breaker Labs—they'll do bad stuff to us."

"Not as long as I'm here," Skynet vowed, "As long as I still breathe, no one will harm you."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Do you promise on a _kiss_?"

Skynet moved so that his back was to the Cassetticons and they couldn't see his face. He pulled down his scarf and confidently kissed Jess. Jess reared back for a moment in surprise, but came back into the kiss, wrapping her arms around Skynet, as he did for her, enjoying the taste of him. Primus, he was such a _good_ kisser! She wanted to just take off his visor and his shirt and everything under it and just see what else he could do. He was so kind, so nice, so warm and welcoming and understanding; not like the tales of cold Decepticons. He was his own person; hardly related at all to the calm and cool Soundwave. She wanted to get lost in him and let him do what ever he wanted to her to show him her love—

"Woo!" Rockpunch suddenly whooped, spinning one of his over-sized fists over his head. "The boss is getting it _on_! Go, boss, go!"

Skynet and Jess broke apart, panting heavily. They looked away, blushing, while Skynet replaced his face scarf and got to his feet. He helped Jess to her feet and she promptly began to check over Pointblank in an attempt to hide her red face. Skynet turned to the Cassetticons and walked over to the wall. They stepped aside to allow him full access to the section of the wall they were pounding.

"You _still_ haven't busted it down yet?" Skynet asked.

"Sorry, Boss," Rockpunch said, shrugging, "We can hear a hall or something on the other side of this section, but this place is built like a tank!"

Skynet hummed in acknowledgement then stood straight, turning his palms to the wall at hip height, curling his gloved fingers somewhat.

"On my mark," he ordered, "Both of you punch the wall as hard as you can."

"Right!" the Cassetticons replied, striking identical poses of readiness on either side of Skynet against the wall.

Curious, Jess lowered Pointblank and watched. Soon, a strange humming noise began filling the air, making every bone in Jess' body begin to vibrate gently. She stirred uncomfortably, but dared not interrupt whatever Skynet was doing. The hum reached a pit and suddenly, Skynet thrust his hands forward. A small flick in the air brushed against Jess' head—a wordless, telepathic shout from Skynet—and both Cassetticons slammed their fists into the targeted wall.

The wall was made of metal; it should have screeched or boomed when it exploded into thousands of scraps of metal. But it _shattered_ as if it were glass. Physics ordered that the metal remains should have been blown in the direction of the punch, but physics was given the middle finger as the metal shards rained down in the exact space of the wall they had formally occupied, leaving behind an arch opening so perfect, it could have been cut with precise lasers. Jess' jaw dropped open in dumb fundament.

"Woha!" Rockpunch exclaimed, grinning at Skynet, "Neat trick, boss! How'd you do it?"

"I used telepathy and sonic powers to move the molecules into a glass-like formation of hardness and had you apply impact when it was most brittle," Skynet explained. "Everyone come. We must find the others."

"Are we bringing the she-Autobot?" Suspicion asked, jerking a thumb at Jess. "She might betray us."

"She will not," Skynet replied. "And yes, we are bringing her. Jess?"

Jess strode right past the Effort and his Cassetticons, stepping into the dark hallway beyond. She looked up and down the hall and then at Skynet.

"No one's coming. Which way do we go?" she asked.

"Something in these walls prevents me from telepathically scanning people that are not in the immediate area," Skynet replied. "Which way feels good to you?"

"Left!" Rockpunch declared, pointing left while, at the same time, Suspicion pointed right and declared, "Right!"

"Do Rock, Paper, Scissors," Jess suggested.

"Okay," The Cassetticons said, holding out their fists and shaking them. "Rock, paper, scissors… GUN!!"

Both cussed when they both bared a gun hand shape.

"Hey, it's rock paper, scissors, there _is_ no gun!" Jess scolded.

"We know," Rockpunch snickered.

"It's called cheating," Suspicion pointed out.

"We go left," Skynet stated, ending the argument, "Because I feel like it."

"You're the man with the plan, boss," Rockpunch said.

Skynet led the way as Rockpunch stuck his tongue out at Suspicion. Suspicion shot a glare at Rockpunch and lifted a fist as ice formed on it. Jess rolled her eyes behind them and knocked their heads together. They rubbed their heads and looked unhappily at Jess, but dared say nothing about their boss's girl.

- - - -

Mean while, another door was shattering, this one made brittle by freezing temperatures. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe tumbled out of the doors and onto the floor as the doors cracked and broke apart in front of them, releasing them into tall narrow, dim rock hallway barley big enough to let Transformers walk in. The Lamborghini Twins panted as they rubbed their sore shoulders and Cold Blitzwing stepped over them, hands on his hips and looking up and down the hall. Abruptly, he turned right and walked away, down the hall.

"What's he doing?" Sideswipe panted.

"I don't know," Sunstreaker grunted, helping Sideswipe to his feet. "But I don't want to have to take that creep on by ourselves. Come on, let's go find the others before he decides to come back and finish us off!"

The two Autobots ran in the opposite direction Blitzwing had gone, transforming into Lamborghini forms and speeding away. Blitzwing, mean while, had began knocking his knuckles into the wall, detecting something of interest to him. Suddenly, the tone of the metal-on-rock clanging changed tone. Smirking, Cold Blitzwing stepped back and released a large, violent jet of ice at the wall. When it was suitably frozen, he spun around and kicked the wall with his heel, releasing a karate shout in effort.

The brittle wall broke against Blitzwing's heel and immediately fell apart, admitting entrance into a cell in which Tiestowing and Amethyst were in. There were twin flashes of bluish light as the Efforts powered up into Transformer form and drew out their weapons, ready to battle the Decepticon Effort.

"Ah, I _thought_ I heard the whistling of an opposing Effort," Cold Blitzwing said, tapping the side of his head as he entered the cell. "Please, put those weapons away. I mean no harm, _especially _to my little brother."

"Slag, not this again," Tiestowing muttered.

"Then what _are_ you looking for?" Amethyst demanded.

"We are all prisoners of Breaker Laboratories," Blitzwing replied. "It would be useful to aide one another in escaping this place, no?"

Tiestowing and Amethyst exchanged wary glances. They exchanged brief whispers before lowering their weapons.

"Alright, fine," Tiestowing said. "We'll work together. But any funny business and we're shooting you!"

"What ever you say, Josh," Blitzwing chuckled.

"It's Tiestowing now, and this is Amethyst. We adopted new names when we got our Transformer alt-forms. Guess it's kind of a tradition, huh?"

Cold's face spun around and was exchanged for Random Blitzwing, who threw his hands in the air and cried out happily, "I _love_ traditions! Come on, we can talk about them on our way to the other Transformers!"

Amethyst and Tiestowing exchanged confused looks, but shrugged and followed Blitzwing out of the cell and into the hallway.

- - - -

"It's called romey-romey-fa-fa-fay!" Rockpunch snapped.

"No, it's Donna-Donna-la-la-hey!" Suspicion argued back.

"What are you two fighting over?" Jess asked.

"Rockpunch thinks we should start a band after the war and Skynet has this one bar of music going on in his head that we're trying to figure out," Suspicion replied.

"Oh, does he, now?" Jess chuckled, coming up behind Skynet and hugging his neck. "So, what's the song, Skynet?"

Skynet shrugged his shoulders so that he had Jess leaning back in his arms like a finishing tango move with her back to the floor.

"Lover, lover, come to me," Skynet cooed. Jess giggled and nuzzled him. He looked at the Cassetticons, "Where did you get 'donna-donna-la-la-hey' from that?"

"Hey!" Jess exclaimed, looking down the hall. "Someone's coming!"

The party froze in anticipation. Skynet and Jess parted as Jess put a hand on Pointblank. A moment later, one set of red optics and two pairs of blue optics appeared out of the dimness.

"Greetings, Skynet and co," Cold Blitzwing said. "It is good to see you well."

"Josh, Becky! You're alright!" Jess exclaimed.

"It's Tiestowing and Amethyst now," Amethyst corrected. "We decided to get renamed when we got upgrades."

"I see," Jess said, eyeing the new arm fins on Tiestowing and shield and mini lance in Amethyst's hands. "So, anyone find a way out of here yet?"

"Nein," Blitzwing answered. "And I assume that you didn't, either."

"Affirmative," Skynet replied.

"So, which way do we go now?" Rockpunch asked, looking up and down the hall.

"Let's throw you up in the air and see on which side you land," Suspicion suggested. "You have so few brains that the smallest whiff of air should move you through the air. We'll follow the draft to the surface!"

Rockpunch scowled at Suspicion, and reached a fist back to slam into Suspicion's head. But it was Breaker Laboratories who chose which way to go.

They heard a rumbling and looked back down the hall. After a long moment of rumbling and the walls vibrating, twin sets of head lights appeared in the darkness. They jumped to the side as a red and a yellow Lamborghini raced by. One sounded like it was screaming "wall" over and over again, but the reason for this became obvious soon enough: A solid wall was coming up from down the hall, threatening to crush them.

"Well now," Cold Blitzwing commented, "That's just a tad bit dramatic, isn't it?"

"I blame the Lamborghinis," Suspicion grunted.

"_RUN!!!"_ Tiestowing and Amethyst screamed, transforming into car mode with their doors open.

Understanding, Rockpunch and Suspicion reverted to cassette form, floating over to disappear somewhere around Skynet's shoulders as Skynet and Jess jumped into Amethyst. Blitzwing assumed tank mode and took up the rear as the younger Efforts sped on ahead. The narrow walls flashed by on either side of them, unbroken by a door or air vent of any sort. It was when they saw the tail lights of the Twins ahead did their gas tanks and stomachs sink.

"_Please_ tell me that you're just too stupid to open a simple door!" Amethyst begged as the party came up behind Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

"Nope," Sideswipe replied.

"Dead end," Sunstreaker said.

"Oh, we are _so—_"Tiestowing began.

"_Fire in ze hole!!_" Random Blitzwing shouted in tank mode, aiming his barrel over the cars' roofs at the dead end wall.

A large, forceful ball of fire blasted from the tank barrel and into the wall, crumbling rock and shaking the environment. The Transformers and Efforts had only to see that there was a well-lit space beyond before speeding into it just as the trap wall came up to crush them from behind. Beyond, there was a wide, round-cornered hall made of hard polished tile and plastic, as white and well lit as a hospital. A violent wind was rushing through it and introduced itself by shoving the vehicles down the hall. They heard a momentary clang as the trap wall covered up their entrance hole before the wind sucked them along with a roar.

"Woha!" Sideswipe yelled, fish tailing to regain control, "What's with this??"

"Shut up and just ride the current!" Sunstreaker bellowed, maneuvering around an S-turn in the hall. "And don't crash!"

"**!!!"** Hot Head Blitzwing snarled from the tank,** "I hate this place! I **_**really**_** hate this place!"**

"Maybe if I took to the air in robot mode—"Tiestowing began.

"Don't you dare," Amethyst snarled, "You're not experienced enough and you'll crash!"

"Fearing for my life, my love?" Tiestowing asked, turning around to slide along backwards and face Amethyst. "Aw, my darling; how kind of you!"

"I just don't want a bunch of _wind_ and a _wall_ doing the job for me!" Amethyst snarled.

"I think she likes you," Random Blitzwing snickered.

"And won't you just pick one personality and stick with it already!?" Amethyst snarled at Blitzwing. "It's confusing having you switch between faces like that!"

"**Would you rather I stick with Hot Head!?"** Hot Head Blitzwing snarled, aiming the tank's gun barrel at her, **"Because I'm fine with that!"**

"Point that thing _away_ from me or I'll rip it off!" Amethyst snarled.

"Dirty thought," Sideswipe squeaked.

"**You're scary,"** Blitzwing admitted to Amethyst, pointing his gun barrel away.

"I'm confused," Jess commented, "How can Breaker Labs make something like this? These winds are usually only found in hurricanes and tornados!"

"Technology: Superior," Skynet commented.

"Skynet is right," Cold Blitzwing agreed, "There is very little technology can not do these days. They probably have some sort of super vacuum and wind system creating this wind as a sort of way of keeping out intruders."

"Fork in the hall," Sunstreaker announced, "Everyone get as close together as possible and go down the same fork!"

But the wind current changed at that moment and the vehicles began to be shaken apart as the wind currents maneuvered around them. A split in the hall would send them sailing either left or right, but being stuck in the sharp corner splitting them would slice them apart.

"I think Breaker Laboratories has different plans," Jess said as Tiestowing began to weave uncontrollably.

With a shout, a sudden gust of wind to the back sent Tiestowing spinning around down the left fork in the road.

"Tiesto!" Amethyst yelled.

"Do not fear, my love, I will come back for you!" Tiestowing called.

"Screw it, go get eaten by monsters or something!" Amethyst snarled as she went sliding, sideways, down the right fork with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.

Grunting with effort, Hot Head Blitzwing transformed into a kneeling robot mode, digging his heels into the smooth floor in an attempt to slow him self down. At the last possible minute, he flung himself to the left, clipping the toe of one of his boots on the sharp corner. He transformed back into tank mode and followed after Tiestowing.

"**You are not getting away that easily,"** he muttered, **"Little brother…"**


	34. Moriguchi's Good Day

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 34: Moriguchi's Good Day**

After leading him through what felt like miles of hidden tunnels and elevators, Hornet had finally brought Benjamin to a room that appeared to have a use as a surveillance room and energon laboratory. To the far right were six enormous tanks of interchanging light green preservatives and glowing purple energon being checked over by six people. To the left was a raised platform on which a large counsel was stationed, facing the tanks and a team of five attended. Behind the counsel, on the left wall, was a large wall of screens currently be surveyed and controlled by numerous people sitting at the computers at the foot of the wall. Benjamin didn't know it, but this room was identical to the room that had, a long time ago, held the prone forms of the surviving Decepticon Elites in stasis for scientific study.

"Why are we here, Max?" Benjamin asked Hornet.

**"Hornet shows Ben-boy something,"** Hornet replied. **"Wait here."**

Hornet strode away from Benjamin, using a peculiar lunging-forward gait that reminded Benjamin of a peacock. Hornet spoke briefly with one of the scientists at the control counsel.

"Benjamin, it's so lovely to see you again!"

Benjamin spun around, his heart jumping into his heart. Behind him, Dr. Moriguchi had appeared, flashing a grin that, while attempting to look friendly, it reflected out as one of the creepiest smiles ever.

"Moriguchi," Benjamin snarled.

"Yes, yes, I am aware that we know each other," Moriguchi said. "How do you like Hornet's upgrade?"

"What have you done to Max?" Benjamin demanded.

"Oh, _I_ didn't do anything," Moriguchi scoffed, "He was broken when he got to me. His friends ignored him, his superiors blew him off, and he was nothing more than the idiotic comedy relief to those around him. I just fixed him."

"He's destroyed!" Benjamin argued, "He doesn't speak well and attacked me!"

"He doesn't speak well?" Moriguchi asked. "He doesn't _speak_ well? Is _that_ how you measure your friends, Benjamin; whether they are _grammatically correct_ or not? Gracious, Benjamin, don't fall off your pedestal; you might hit your head!"

A knock came to Benjamin's head from behind, but not so hard as to knock him out. He fell forward onto his stomach.

"Max," Benjamin asked, getting to his knees, "What are you--?"

Hornet struck out, slapping Benjamin hard enough to knock him onto his back. Benjamin touched his stinging cheek and looked up at Hornet with wide, confused eyes.

"What _Hornet_ and I would like to show you is your old friend's new choice of careers," Moriguchi said, clapping his hand on Hornet's yellow shoulder.

Hornet gave no outward signal that he acknowledged the touch.

"You see, we here at Breaker Labs have found that with emotional manipulation to the human form and digital reprogramming to the robot form, we can make any Effort do whatever we want. Now all we have to do is perfect our Effort serum and… ta-daa! Breaker Laboratories Office of Domination, better known as BLOOD, will have the perfect army for world domination!"

"You know, you're making Bad Guy Mistake #1," Benjamin said as he regained his feet, still rubbing his cheek.

"Telling the 'good guys' the 'secret, evil plan of world domination' before it's done, yes, yes, I know, I've watched cartoons before, too," Moriguchi said, waving a hand dismissively.

He propped an elbow on Hornet's shoulder as he spoke.

"But, you know, I'm counting on the fact that you're not making it out of here alive."

"Then why don't you just kill me before I find a way to stop you?" Benjamin asked, clenching his fists.

"Because I know that manipulating you into my control would be a fate worse than death," Moriguchi said with a cheery grin. To the people at the security counsel, he called, "Show him!"

All the images on the security camera screens blanked out, revealing one large image split up over numerous screens. The image was of Optimus bound to the wall, emitting engine roars of pain as electricity and laser beams were shot at him from people off screen.

"Father!" Benjamin yelled.

"Surrender to me and he will be allowed to live," Moriguchi said. "He will be unable to transform from his truck mode when we're done with him, but he will be able to move, speak, and live. It is an even trade, do you accept?"

Benjamin looked from Moriguchi to the screen and back again. He looked to Max-now-Hornet, seeking some sort of help. But the large black optics merely stared out listlessly.

"Can I at least _try_ rescuing him?" Benjamin asked.

"What do you think?" Moriguchi snarled as Hornet struck a battle pose, preparing for a duel. "You either surrender and your father lives, or you continue this fight, die eventually, and your father will die before you are out of this room. Those lasers," he said, pointing to the screens, "Can cut through the toughest Transformer armor and will dice up his Spark Chamber into so many metal dice to play a board game with in six seconds! Do you _really_ want to take the gamble at your father's _life_ in the name of silly comic book-style heroism and rescue? Answer me, Benjamin, what is your answer!?"

Benjamin closed his eyes, trying to figure out a plan.

"I can… no… steal one of the blade fragments… hold his life… or talk to Max…" he muttered.

Moriguchi made a motion to one of the scientists, who spoke into a communicator. A moment later, a long, low howl of pain came from Optimus as a laser zoned in on a particular nerve point. Tears stung Benjamin's eyes as he reared his head up.

"Stop!" he yelled, "Stop, I'll do it! I'll do what ever you want, but leave my father alone!"

"I knew you would see it my way," Moriguchi chuckled as a couple of scientists came up on either side of Benjamin, taking him by his arms. "Just do what these nice people say and your deal will be honored."

Five minutes later, Benjamin had followed the scientists up a ladder to the top of one of the purple energon tanks and removed his belt, shoes, and socks. Looking down from the platform at the top of the enormous tank, he saw that the onslaught of lasers and electricity had been called off and Optimus hung limply in his holdings. Hornet stood by Moriguchi, staring up at Benjamin as the scientists hooked a hard plastic bracelet of letters and numbers around his left ankle and wrist and took his vital signs. Moriguchi leaned over and whispered something to Hornet. Hornet opened his mouth and spoke in a surprisingly humane, older male voice.

"Don't worry, it stops hurting after the first hour," he called up.

Some how, Benjamin knew that this was the voice of an older Max, being manipulated out of Hornet's core in some perverse display of power. His eyes widened as he opened his mouth to ask something. But at that moment, as they turned away, one of the scientists effortlessly and apathetically shoved him off the platform and into the enormous energon tank, performing the maneuver like a jock would to a nerd into a mud puddle.

For a moment, Benjamin sailed through the air, falling upside down. As he cleared the edge of the tank, a metal lid slid over the top with the speed and sound of a falling guillotine. Benjamin managed to take a final breath before making a splash landing into the airy liquid energon. He sank deep and for a moment, a tingly cool feeling spread over him. Then a pain unlike anything he had felt before ripped across him, burning his skin and ripping at his muscles. He reflexively opened his mouth to scream, but energon only rushed in. He swam upwards, trying to escape the pain like a rat trying to escape some water-bound predator. But more energon had been poured into the tank, filling it up to the lid and not even leaving an inch of clearance between the energon and lid. Benjamin pounded at the underside of the lid, panic filling him as the energon filled his lungs.

Optimus, in his prison, twitched in his sleep as he sensed his Sparkling in trouble, but was unable to act as Benjamin became numb and limp. The energon began to glow about him as it began to change him forcefully, one burning molecule by one burning molecule.

Moriguchi smirked, chuckling, "Heroes; they believe anything."

"Sir!" one of the surveillance people called, "More intruders in the salt mines: It's—It's Megatron, sir! And he appears to have the two youngest Efforts with him!"

"And I spot a Lost Effort and someone entering the place through our vents," another reported.

"'Someone?' What, we have the most advanced scanning technology ever and we can't tell what species a single 'someone' is?" Moriguchi demanded.

"They're emitting some sort of electric field that's messing with our scanners, sir."

"Let them come on in," Moriguchi ordered. "They can add for a bit of interesting with the other experiment subjects. Put me in direct contact with Megatron."

The lights dimmed in the room as a hologram communication device was set in the floor in front of Moriguchi by the scientists. Hornet stepped aside as the surveillance people activated a sort of calling beep to Megatron from the camera they were seeing him from. Megatron, curious about the beep, came over to the camera and a 3-D image of Moriguchi appeared floating in the air in front of him while his own image was projected up for Moriguchi.

"Humph, thought you were behind this, Dr. Moriguchi," Megatron grunted. "I may have been comatose much of the time while I was your prisoner, but I remember that you liked dramatics and classics, like an underground base. What happened to the parties that came down here earlier?"

"All have been captured and are in numerous rooms in our laboratories beneath the ground you stand on undergoing experiments," Moriguchi replied. "Care to join them?"

"No. I want to make a deal," Megatron said, holding the little Decepticon Efforts tightly in one massive fist. Shadowleap and Cartwheel wiggled fearfully in his hand, but were unable to escape.

"Speak it, I am in a bartering mood," was Moriguchi's joke of an answer.

"Ever since you created that _infection_ I have been forced to call a son," Megatron snarled, "I have been forced to watch over him and his _brats_ and play along with the charade of accepting half-human hybrids into my army. This is disgusting and I want it to be fixed."

"But didn't you have a non-Transformer robot in your ranks before, a lady called Night Bird?"

"That was a special case. This time," he growled, glaring at the frightened little ones in his hands. "The hybrids are embarrassing _children_, rude, insubordinate, and young. I _hate_ kids. Hence, I have brought these two _test subjects_ as a peace gift that way you may severe the cursed Spark bond between Mextron and myself. With the bond gone, I will be free to kill him without consequence."

"My, your own child, Megatron," Moriguchi exclaimed mockingly, "I didn't think that even _you_ were so harsh!"

"Then people have come to deeply underestimate and misjudge me," Megatron grunted. "So, I give you these kids and you get to experiment and I'll have this connection broken. Do you accept?"

"Oh, I do!" Moriguchi laughed, clapping his hands together eagerly. "Just follow the light bulb trails and you'll come straight to the entrance!"

Shadowleap yelled something incoherently and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.

"Oh, darn, blasted worm," Megatron grunted, turning as Shadowleap reappeared a distance behind him.

"The claws will get him," Moriguchi assured, even as the security system's appendages leaped from the darkness and made a grab for Shadowleap.

Shadowleap teleported out of the way of the claws several times, but two appeared on either side of the boy and a force field appeared between them, encasing Shadowleap in a clear-colored bubble. When he attempted to teleport away, he merely bounced back with a loud pop. Cartwheel began to cry, but Megatron ignored her as he smirked at Moriguchi.

"Nice," he complimented. "I will see you soon."

He walked away from the camera and the communication link was broken. The lights brightened back up and Moriguchi straightened the collar of his shirt, humming a cheery tune to him self.

"Ah, what a _wonderful_ day!" he sighed. "Come along. Hornet, we have other matters to attend to."

- - - -

The reprogramming process is a quick an easy matter when the Effort is under extreme pain, as Benjamin was in now, and is very similar to Spark splitting: Both are excruciatingly painful, but relatively quick in occurrence.

Reprogramming is done while the targeted Effort is in superb pain and undergoing a slow change into a Transformer, just like Benjamin as he soaked in energon. Miniature ray guns inside the tank carefully aimed themselves at Benjamin and the tank attendants waited. Sure enough, it was not long before Benjamin began to grow and his skin scaled and hardened into metal. We'll skip the unpleasant details and assure the reader that Transforming by energon is a far longer, more painful, and less pretty process than Spark chamber-piercing. Scanners kept an eye on his internals.

"Brain is at fifty percent transfer," someone announced.

Instantly the rays were fired up and programmers began to type at their computers.

In order to properly reprogram an Effort, the data must be written directly into the developing processor-brain via laser rays that would contain the data. Typing in the data fresh minimizes its aging in the cyber world, for the longer the data is in the cyber world, the less likely chance the processor will absorb the data permanently, similar to teaching a puppy new tricks. Shooting data into a developing processor further makes the chances of the data being permanent even higher, so that even if the data is, by some miracle, reversed, the Effort will never ever be fully free of the programming.

"Ugh, look at that: He's getting energon stains."

"I _knew _we should have cleaned him off before dunking him in."

"There's no time! We'll buff the stains out later. Moriguchi ordered us to have this thing ready for fighting with in the hour and that's what he'll get. Or do you want to be his next Effort serum experiment?"

Silence.

"How soon until he's complete?"

"Loyalty programming: Complete."

"Behavior programming: Complete."

"Internal changes: Complete."

"Battle programming: Complete."

"External changes… there, done."

"Hey, are we gonna get this guy a transforming sequence or what?"

"Negative; he won't need it."

"Well, okay, how about a name?"

"Ooh! How about we call him Hades?"

"With _that_ color scheme?"

"We'll be painting over the energon stains, anyway."

"Enough!" the leader shouted. "Is he complete?"

"Yes."

"Good. Drain the tank, dry him off, and get him ready for the fight. Too bad we don't have time to make sure that he doesn't have bugs. This guy is our last line of defense and if he doesn't win, we're screwed to high heaven and low hell."


	35. A Case of Mistaken Identity

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 35: A Case of Mistaken Identity**

By the time Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Amethyst, Jess, and Skynet and co. slid sideways into a room at the end of their hall's fork, Sideswipe was cussing out Breaker Labs. They were cold and dry from the artificial wind and sore from trying to control themselves in the twists and turns. They all crashed into a mound against the end room's far wall before the doors slid shut, cutting off the air flow.

"Damnit!" Sideswipe snarled, transforming and crawling on his hands and knees out of the pile. "My tires are burned bald from braking so damn much! I swear, that last series of turns spelled out 'ha ha'! Oww, my feet and tires hurt!"

"They wouldn't if you had only controlled your inertia better," Sunstreaker growled, standing up and out of the heap, "Or hadn't insisted on doing doughnuts and showing off."

Amethyst let Jess and Skynet out of her before assuming robot mode.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Looking around, the party realized that they had showed up in a kennel of some sort. By human terms, it was a large kennel, but by Transformers, it was a small room lit only by one light, leaving a corner in dimmer light. There were six cages on the bottom row, six on top, on either side of the wall, totaling twenty four stall-sized cages. The party walked up and down the aisle, peeking into the dark cages. Four were empty, but if one squinted into the darkness, they saw the creatures with in the other cages.

Most of the creatures were too disgusting or odd for description. All one needed to say was that the failed hybrid of metal and flesh would have been put out of its misery by even the most tender animal lover. They didn't know it, but these were the test subjects for Moriguchi's Effort serum; organic creatures that had been forced to take Transformer compound injections in his quest for an artificial Effort army. Some twittered in paint, but most just stared curiously out at their unexpected visitors.

At the end of the aisle, Sideswipe announced something, motioning for the others to come over.

"Hey, I found Anne!"

The others bustled over. Sure enough, inside one of the top right cage, Anne-Scarletclaw in robotic feline form was sitting erect and motionlessly in her cage with her optics wide open and her ears perked up while her tail was curled around her. Her metal had been recently polished and frankly, she made a magnificent looking statue.

"Anne?" Amethyst called, "Are you okay, sweetie?"

"New designation: Scarletclaw," Skynet said, "Adopted upon mistaken alliance with Decepticons."

"Yeah, yeah, thanks for reminding me," Amethyst snarled. To the cage, "Okay, _Scarletclaw_, give me a sign that you're alive."

Scarletclaw hung her head, sighing in exhaustion. Suddenly energy zapped from the walls, making her yowl and jump a little in pain before resuming her perfect posture.

"The cage zaps her if she moves out of her position," Jess diagnosed. "Another sick game of Breaker Labs, no doubt. They probably want to make her some _statue_ or furniture piece."

"With those crush and wind halls back there, I can believe that," Sideswipe agreed, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "Man, it sucks to be Scarlet," he added, looking into the cage, "I can't even stand still for one of Optimus' speeches, let alone sit in perfect posture."

"Stand back," Sunstreaker said, waving the others away as he stepped back.

Lifting his foot, Sunstreaker kicked at the cage once, twice, and a third time. Finally, the lock gave away and clinked to the floor as the door swung open. With a pitiful mew, Scarletclaw leaped from the cage and into Sunstreaker's arms. Sunstreaker's optics widened in surprise as the feline began to nuzzle him and purr happily.

"Woha!" he said, "Er, um… you're welcome."

"Aww, she likes you, Sunny!" Sideswipe chuckled. "Well, now that _that's_ fixed, how do we get out of here without getting killed?"

Right on cue, all the other cage doors undid themselves and opened up. The animals inside began to growl. Sideswipe's face scowled then he dropped his hands from his hips as his shoulders slumped.

"Oh, come _on_!" he yelled.

Somewhere, some guys at a control board laughed.

The Transformer-animal hybrid experiments came from their cages, baring white fangs against black bodies and imperfect maws, all dripping with saliva while claws and other weapon appendages appeared. They had been docile in their cages, but they had already been taught to maim and kill strangers.

"Oh, this is just great," Jess growled, drawing Pointblank.

"Rockpunch, Suspicion, eject and defend," Skynet ordered, drawing his Cassetticons from the air near his shoulders and tossing them into the air to transform.

"Alright," Rockpunch said as he and Suspicion landed in robot mode, fists clenched and ready for fighting. "There's, let's see, two, four, nine. No, three, six, twenty one… Uh… two, three, six, eight, who do we appreciate?"

"There's _eight_ of us, you uneducated jug head!" Suspicion yelled, "_Eight _of us! We have a stupid twin, a murder twin, a she-cop, a cat, our boss and his gun-monstrosity-wielding girlfriend, and you and me: that's _eight_. Learn to count, idiot!"

Everyone looked at Skynet and Jess, who awkwardly looked away.

"Well, I'm _sorry_, but I dropped out of school for a reason!" Rockpunch snapped.

"You couldn't even learn to count to the first double-digit number? What kind of a person _are_ you?"

"Hey, some of the best people in history couldn't count that high!"

"Name three!"

"Jesus—"

"He could count, and religious figures don't count!"

"Oh, well, then, screw you!"

"You realize that just about any human on Earth would gut you for that comment, right, Rockpunch?" Sideswipe asked.

"So, the guy's dead, why should I care?" Rockpunch said, shrugging up at Sideswipe.

"Rockpunch, honey, please," Jess sighed, rubbing her forehead, "Just quite while you're ahead, please."

"Insulting that guy is like insulting Chuck Norris," Sideswipe said, "Some one's going to kill you if they hear you, and that someone will be the person you're insulting."

"Oh, come on, it's totally true!" Rockpunch argued, "The guy had, what, eight, nine dudes in his group?"

"_Twelve,"_ everyone yelled at him.

"Okay! Okay! No need to get testy with me!" Rockpunch said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Jeez, and I thought Transformers don't _have_ a religion."

"Oh, that's why we have some one called _Primus_ to cuss with?" Sunstreaker asked.

All through this cumbersome conversation (which means no offense to the religious and is purely for fun, please don't crucify/flame the author), the animal experiments had hunkered down, getting ready to spring an attack on the party while Skynet just kept getting more and more annoyed with the conversation. Finally, he flung his hands up.

"Enough!!" he shouted.

As one, all the animals were suddenly lifted off their feet and flung back into their cages. The cage doors were promptly slammed shut and locked by invisible hands. The beasts screeched and roared in anger, but they were harmless in their confines. The party stared in dumb surprise at the cages before slowly looking down at Skynet.

"I _hate_ talking about politics and religion," Skynet snapped, uncharacteristically using a pronoun around strangers. "Now, let's find a way out of here, okay?"

At that moment, a strange thumping noise came from over head and a moment later, a part of the ceiling broke away, dropping down a couple of small forms onto the floor in front of the party. One of the people was, surprisingly enough, Sam, in his old blue collared shirt and dark jeans with black high-top sneakers and a blue visor, all making his fiery red hair all the more vibrant. The other person with him, interestingly enough, was a young girl.

She appeared anywhere from sixteen to eighteen years old and as thin as a twig. Her long, thin, pale limbs were dressed in a turquoise and white cheerleader uniform with long white sleeves, but leaving her legs bare under a short skirt. Her knee-high boots were black and a triangular pack was on her back, nestled between two long, pig tails of turquoise and white hair bound by metallic silver ribbon. Her large, innocent blue eyes looked around curiously as she lied on her back, staring at her surroundings.

Sam sat up, making himself seen first.

"Oww-wee!" he whooped, rubbing his head, "Give a guy a break, will ya? Creepy dark salt mines, harassing metal claws, and now a knock on the head! What—"He looked up, finally seeing the party. "Are you doing here?" he finished, changing his original sentence.

"What are _you_ doing here!?" Sideswipe asked.

"Skyfire and MJ got nervous, so they sent Alias and me down here," Sam said, standing up as he jerked a thumb at the new girl.

"_That's_ Alias' human form?" Amethyst asked as Sam helped the girl to her feet.

"Yeah, she needed to shrink down to sneak in through the air vents," Sam explained.

"Hello," she squeaked.

"Cute," Jess said in approval.

Scarletclaw mewed as she nuzzled Sunstreaker. Sunstreaker stroked her head and back comfortingly in reply.

"Come on, guys," he said, "We gotta find the other Autobots and find our way out of here."

"What about the Decepticons?" Rockpunch asked. "Aren't you going to help them, too?"

"No way," Sunstreaker snarled. "They can all rot for all I care!"

"But Breaker Laboratories is the enemy of Autobots and Decepticons alike," Suspicion pointed out. "It would be wise to team up and defeat the Laboratories before they do serious damage to the Transformer kind."

"Speedy here's got a point," Sam agreed, "Let's team up, a rare dynamic duo or—what ever, ya know? Let's do it!"

"I don't—"Sunstreaker began.

"Who says team up, raise their hand," Sam said quickly as his own hand shot up.

Everyone but Sunstreaker raised their hand (or paw, in Scarletclaw's case).

"Sideswipe!" Sunstreaker exclaimed.

"What?" Sideswipe asked. "Seriously, bro, those claw things touched me very inappropriately and I don't feel like having to run for my life while another wall rushes in to give me a big, loving hug. If they're not an ally, at least think of it as one-less baddie to worry about."

To this, Sunstreaker sighed and rolled his optics, but continued to pet Scarletclaw as he glared at Sideswipe and said, "Fine! But I'm warning you: One wrong move and they're road kill!"

"What ever you say, cat nip man," Sideswipe snickered.

- - - -

Somewhere else, another dull white room waited. The only thing that would set this apart from others was a forest of numerous cables and wires hanging from the ceiling and a large TV screen embedded into the wall opposite the doors. The doors slid open with a hydraulic hiss, letting in a torrent of violent winds that dragged with them one very unfortunate Mustang-like machine. The car's tires screamed and smoked as it skid across the floor, sliding sideways into the wall with a violent crash of metal and glass. The car's headlights dimmed out as its engine died in an apparent state of unconsciousness. Outside, a tank suddenly took to the air as a jet-robot, clearing the last few feet of space before he flung himself into the room, rolling as the doors slid shut once more.

Cold Blitzwing transformed and landed in a kneeling position in the middle of the floor, but he was given no rest. The dangling cables suddenly reared up, and, like the tentacles of some unseen octopus, dove for Blitzwing. Blitzwing's cannons spun around in either direction, instantly freezing the cables in a rush of ice. Before the cables were given time to warm up and thaw the ice, Blitzwing swung his arms out, shattering the frozen cables and allowing them to rain to the floor. Blitzwing stood in the new clearance space in the room as the frozen ropes of rubber and metal thawed around him. When no other booby trap cables dared come at him again, he went over to the Mustang and knelt again.

A quick tap to the roof, side, and hood gave Blitzwing the desired reaction of reverting Tiestowing to his robot form. Blitzwing propped the unconscious boy up and began to examine his vital signs. The large TV screen over head flicked on, revealing the face of an amused Moriguchi.

_"Ah, so the little patient has a visitor already, does he?"_ Moriguchi inquired. It was a lame opening statement, but Cold Blitzwing merely stared up at the screen as Moriguchi went on, _"You know, you __were__ supposed to kill the Twins and get smashed in that wall, but I guess not all machines can be programmed perfectly, can they? Well, here's what's supposed to happen to Josh, AKA: Tiestowing, here: He was __supposed__ to be locked in here, get hooked up, and give us __so__ many insights on the internal workings of a live Autobot Effort. But you destroyed half the cables, so I guess we're just going to activate the crusher now and leave it at that. But here's a tip that can help you escape: One is that the roof is very delicate. Good luck, Mr. Blitzwing."_

The TV flicked off again just as a crunching, whirring noise started behind Blitzwing. Turning, Blitzwing saw that the walls were beginning to slowly inch towards each other. It was slow, but it was obvious that time was short. Ice Blitzwing's calm, neutral exterior warped around, becoming Hot Head. He shouted an Earthling cuss that started with F as loud as he could. He turned back to Tiestowing as he began to set Tiestowing back in place, fixing minor damages and the like.

**"What is it with these Breaker Laboratory guys and trying to crush me?"** he demanded**. "I'm a Decepticon, **_**I**_** do the crushing, not these insects! All I wanted was to purge the world of weaklings through massive genocide. Is that too much to ask? Come on, people south of the border everywhere do it all the time!"**

Hot Head's face warped and became Random, who went on, "But then again, everybody always says that south of the border is the worst place, and yet, it's so much fun! Like Mexico!"

Cold replaced Random and commented, "But it is all a matter of opinion as to what one calls 'fun'. For example…"

Cold became replaced by Hot Head as he threw the cables aside and took Tiestowing in his arms, bridal style.

**"I like ripping the Spark chambers out of squealing Autobots!"** Hot Head cheered.

Blitzwing stood and aimed his shoulder cannons to the ceiling as Random took control.

"I like dancing to the cha-cha!" he sang, shaking his hips a little.

Cold took over and smirked as he blasted the ceiling with ice.

"And I like control," he finished.

The unseen source of light in the room flashed and flickered before going out and sparks rained from the ceiling as a blizzard of ice daggers cut open the ceiling. Energy flew from the walls and was attracted to the robots. Blitzwing did not even acknowledge the electrocution, but Tiestowing shuddered in his arms as he absorbed the weird energy.

The walls began to brush the tips of Blitzwing's wings as a bright flare of light flashed up from Tiestowing's lights. Tiestowing's optics snapped open, revealing only briefly a blue orb of light before a whirlpool of red swarmed in from the edges, turning his optics Decepticon red. A color change came over his paint job as well, turning his heavenly silver into deadly black and his black accents into hansom midnight blue. The reborn Tiestowing sat up with a gasp as Blitzwing blasted through the hole in the ceiling.

Moriguchi had not been lying about the ceiling being weak; it had given away easily and emitted the two fliers into a chamber far different than any they had ever seen before.

It was enormous; as large as the cavern that had been the building sight of the _Reborn Nemesis_. In contrast to the other cavern, though, the walls were smooth and metal covered, lined with numerous elevators, ladders, and cat walks that had path ways crossing through the open air overhead. If one had grown up watching any sort of manga-style fighting cartoon, they would have a strange sense of de' ja' vu at seeing the enormous cavern, which, in truth, appeared to be some sort of arena. On the far end, though, stood three enormous, colossal humanoid machines colored black and dark grey, with body castings of relation to Omega Supreme. They were big enough to make even Skyfire and the largest of combiner teams look like a midget. Their size alone, coupled with the shadows that the machines stood in, were enough to make the Transformers wary.

Below them, the hole they had created escaping their death trap closed up as the crushing walls below came together, leaving a large pot hole where the damaged floor was. In the shadows high over head, four TV screens facing outward in a cube, much like the TV's one sees at basketball games, flicked on, showing Moriguchi's scarred face once more.

_"Well, done, Blitzwing!"_ Moriguchi complimented, his voice echoing off the distant walls. _"And congratulations on your new side kick. Now, all you have to do is just sit tight and wait for the others to come, and hopefully you won't be battling those enormous things over there all by yourself!"_

The TV screens flicked off, leaving Blitzwing and Tiestowing to hover in the near darkness of the dim, enormous arena. Blitzwing floated down and landed, setting Tiestowing down on the floor.

"Side kick?" Blitzwing muttered. "What is the human talking about?"

"Perhaps he talks of me, brother" Tiestowing said in a thick Russian accent.

Blitzwing snapped his head around to stare at the younger Effort in shock. For a moment, he didn't know what to do. The look on his face resembled that which is given when a confusing joke is told.

"Mech, what is your name, rank, purpose, and relation to me?" Cold Blitzwing inquired.

"I am Tiestowing," Tiestowing replied, pronouncing his name as "test-o-ving". "I am the human hybrid son, or Effort, of Autobot Jazz, created as a faked peace gift by Breaker Laboratories. I am an avian soldier and I fight when and where you fight, big brother Blitzwing."

Blitzwing's face had begun to fall in dumb surprise at Tiestowing's answer, but now he smiled warmly at the last bit and the brain washed lad went on.

"I apologize for not realizing this sooner, but you are good for me. You are skilled in both ground and avian maneuvering and are strong and intelligent. Benjamin studied under you in the German military school, so you _must_ be worth _something_."

_Amazing, _Blitzwing thought. _The Breaker Laboratories chamber must have reprogrammed him somehow as a sort of sick joke or in another one of their random experiments. Now Tiestowing thinks he is my brother!_

_**Well, so we thought the same of him, **_Hot Head grunted. _**So what's the problem? Just accept him!**_

Random Blitzwing took control of the body and wrapped an arm around Tiestowing's black and dark blue shoulders with a triumphant whoop.

"Woo hoo!" he cheered. "I have a little brother!"

- - - -

"Huh, that's interesting…"

Moriguchi turned away from the security footage screen showing the mushy scene between the two mechs and looked at the man that had spoken. The man was sitting at one of the computer terminals that were keeping an eye on the mechs' internal processes, and currently the man was looking at Tiestowing's body.

"What's interesting?" Moriguchi asked.

"The data pack we down loaded into Tiestowing made him a mech of Russian inclination and made him think that he was related to Blitzwing."

"Of course, you idiot; that data pack is meant to reprogram future artificial Effort soldiers,"

Moriguchi sighed and changed the subject. "How is our newest recruit going in the way of the energon bath?"

"He is getting dried off and sent here now."

"Time until he is ready?"

"One hour."

"Good. Have him equipped and ready for battle. I can't wait to see what his _friends_ think of Benjamin's make over…"


	36. Cassetticon Acsepted

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 36: Cassetticon Accepted**

The party in the animal kennel had tried everything they could to leave their room, but every time they had opened the doors, the artificial winds of the halls beyond would pin them against the wall until they managed to shut the doors again. Hence, they had decided to get some rest beside the doors with the wind roaring on the other side, waiting for it to stop or at least quiet down.

Sunstreaker slept sitting back against the wall with Scarletclaw curled up in his lap with Sideswipe resting his head on the yellow Autobot's shoulder. Amethyst powered down and slept in a huddle with Jess and Alias right up against Sideswipe's side. Suspicion and Rockpunch returned to their subspace pocket on Skynet's back and Skynet sat against the doors. The way his face was covered made it difficult to discern whether or not he was sleeping or not. Sam sat against the wall across from him, staring at Skynet long and hard. It was a welcoming time of peace and silence, even if they were trapped.

Suddenly, Sam jerked his head towards the other end of the kennel as he stood. Curious, Skynet got to his feet as Sam did and followed the red-haired human back to Scarletclaw's open and abandoned cage. Its electric flow had been dismantled when Sunstreaker kicked it open. When they were in the private shadows of the cage, Sam turned to Skynet and spoke in a whisper, not wishing to awake the others.

"From what the brown robot was bragging about earlier," Sam began. "You're looking for Cassetticons, right?"

Skynet nodded, "Affirmative."

"And you're also looking for a lost Effort, yeah?"

"Original mission with Soundwave: Recover three unknown Efforts. Found: 1/3. Name of found Effort: Alias. Efforts in hiding: 2/3. Inquiry: How did you know?"

"I pumped Alias for information the entire walk down into this hell hole," Sam said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "She's got something called a Universal Computer Program. It's kinda useless if what you're looking for isn't specifically in a computer, but it's got just the right amount of usefulness to tell me what I wanted to know."

"Inquiry: What did you want to know?"

"Who Soundwave Effort was, what he was doing, and where the hidden Efforts were. Other than her, there's some freak called Juggernaut that Alias calls 'dangerously unstable and fatality is higher the closer he is' or some crap like that."

"Inquiry: Location of final missing Effort."

"Yeah, he's standing in front of you."

Skynet tilted his head to the side curiously. One could just _draw_ a question mark coming from his head.

"My mother was an incubator machine and my father was Decepticon Skywarp," Sam went on. "At age nine, I ran away from Breaker Laboratories in the Sahara Desert because I just couldn't _take_ them any more. I ran away north and made it to Italy before the Breaker Laboratory agents were about to capture me when Decepticon Swindle, AKA: Gadgetmaker, saved my life and I became his apprentice. I've been in hiding with him ever since, waiting for my purpose in life to arise, and I've finally found it: _you_."

Skynet stared at Sam, apparently surprised in his own dull way at this turn of events. Sam, for the first time, removed his visor. Beneath, bloody red eyes glittered in the darkness from his shadowy silhouette as he looked at Skynet. A crafty grin crossed his face.

"What?" Sam asked, "You really think I would run with a bunch of tree-hugging softies like the Autobots or humans? _Please_; all their bull about honor and kindness and crud like that makes me want to _vomit_. Chill out and do what you want, regardless of rules, is my way of life. But that's not the only reason why I'm going Decepticon. You see, Skynet, the reason why I didn't move on was because I felt like _something_ was meant for me, something I was _destined_ for you, and I have complete confidence that my destiny is to be your Cassetticon."

Sam lifted a cupped palm and the air began to waver over it. A small reddish orange spark flickered and crackled to life in the middle of the wavering air and slowly grew bigger, spitting out and drawing in more miniature lightening bolts until a small, rough orb of red-orange energy had collected in his palm, lighting both Efforts' faces in the darkness. Suddenly, Sam dropped his palm and the light disappeared.

"Another thing I hate about being with the Autobots and humans," Sam said, grimacing as he massaged his hand, "I'm weak. I have powers, but they're weak or inaccessible as long as I'm with the Autobots. Now, the way I figured it is this way: Your dad was the boss bot of my dad. Come on, we both know that Skywarp was a hopeless dope and that Soundwave totally had superiority over him on most days. If that's that, then what if you and I joined forces, just like our pops, neh? I can imagine that by doing that, not only will you gain a Cassetticon, but I'll come to my own in full power. What I'm saying, Skynet, is…"

He held a hand out to Skynet.

"I wanna be your Cassetticon."

Skynet looked at the hand, then up at Sam. A part of him was quietly warning him against accepting Sam, but a logical part of him said there was no reason to say no: Sam was fit, both mentally and physically, he was willing, and a telepathic scan showed no overly handicapping flaws in his mentality. So, again his better judgment, he accepted neutral Effort Sam.

"If you do this," he said carefully. "There is no going back."

"I'm ready," Sam said confidently, nodding as he kept eye contact with Skynet.

Skynet bobbed his head once then took Sam's hand.

The instant Skynet's gloved hand wrapped around Sam's own bare one, it squeezed hard. A jolt ran from Skynet to Sam, making the latter jerk on his feet as his brain was sent spinning with the force. He shuddered with barely suppressed energy as a change came over him, spreading from the hand that was held by Skynet, up his arm, and to his shoulder. Flesh swelled slightly, hardened, and smoothed over to become red-purple metal. The elbow became a smooth bar of metal only temporarily before breaking apart with tapping, clicking, and cracking metal, becoming a true robot joint. Sam's eyes widened as he looked down at the transformation.

"Wow," he whispered.

Suddenly, the transformation reached his inner organs and Sam's head snapped back, gritting his teeth against a shout of pain as everything with in him stiffened and cringed in pain. The change spread on across his abdomen, down his legs, and across his other arm. Finally, it crept up his neck and to his head, his most vital area. It leaped up to the left side of his face, making him close his eyes in an internal extinct of vain protection. The change covered his head, turning his hair into a smooth helmet and drying all that was wet on and with in him. There was a final mechanical shudder as the change was completed.

A red wave of energy zipped up from his new booted feet up to the top of his head, buzzing as it went, and finishing the format, refining joints and armor plating and making it harder than any metal on Earth. Nerves became wires, veins became tubes, and blood became coolants and oils. When it passed up by his chest, the energy left behind a bright red Decepticon symbol that flashed when it came to existence. His armor darkened into a dark, dark royal purple, and with the transformation complete, Skynet released the robotized Sam.

Sam collapsed, panting, onto one knee on the floor. After a moment, he looked up, opening his eyes to reveal glowing red optics beneath a translucent blood-red visor. A pair of triangular metal fins on his back spread out in a pair of long, slim wings and folded back; the only thing deviating from his other-wise Cassetticon body. He looked up at Skynet and a small smile crossed his face.

"Wow," he chuckled breathlessly, "What a trip, eh?"

"It always is the first time," Skynet agreed. "Rise up, Screech, and swear your loyalty."

Newly-named Screech stood up tall and saluted by standing tall and slapping a fist over his new Decepticon insignia. He didn't need to make the speech up: It was a natural part of being a Cassetticon.

"I swear to you, my creator, and my master, to follow you to the ends of the universe and back and serve you without hesitance or question. I will fight when you tell me to fight. I will be still when you tell me to be still. I will do when you tell me to do. In return for my undying, unquestioned loyalty and services, you will protect and care for me when I am sick, when I am injured, and when I am in danger. You will not leave me behind. This I do swear, my Cassetticon Handler, Skynet, as Cassetticon Screech."

The Autobots and rouge Scarletclaw jerked awake when they heard not one, but two metal sets of boots thunk to the floor upon jumping out of Scarletclaw's cage. The drowsy party sat up, rubbing sleep from their eyes as Skynet and Screech came over to the door.

"Skynet," Jess yawned, "Who's that with you, honey?"

"Honey?" Sideswipe asked, rubbing his optics. "What--?"

"Uh, weirdo, I mean weirdo!" Jess hastily corrected herself, blushing, "Who's the new guy, weirdo?"

Skynet stopped in front of the door with Screech beside him. Skynet made a parting motion with his hands and the doors slammed open, letting in a rush of artificial wind. Screech placed his palms near each other, creating a large orb of red electricity that he flung out into the tunnel. The comet streaked through the halls, crashing into a distant wall. It went into the wall, sinking down into the machinery with in and frying it.

A great rumbling noise sounded out an all over the underground base as a machine was broken. Lights and machinery turned off and shut down. The artificial lightening stopped attacking the flying Decepticons in their prison. The violent metal grinder came to a halt in the enormous funnel room the Autobots were in. The torturing zaps falling on Mextron ceased, the wind in the halls fell still, and everywhere, everyone was plunged into darkness.

For a moment, only the glowing blue and red optics of the Decepticons and Autobots lit the darkness. Suddenly, the headlights in the Lamborghini Twins flicked on, shedding everyone in light. The red emergency power lights of the laboratories came on a second later.

"_What_ was _that_?" Sunstreaker exclaimed.

"Hey, who's the new dude?" Sideswipe asked.

"The way is clear, we may move on," Skynet said, exiting the room.

"Where's Sam?" Amethyst asked.

Screech raised his hand.

"_Sam???"_ Jess exclaimed.

"What, didn't you notice something weird about me during all those months we worked together repairing the ship, Jess?" Screech chuckled as they walked through the dark halls. "The way important messages from the Autobots just _conveniently _made it to you late, or how I hid my red eyes behind a visor? Don't you think it's a bit weird that I had such close connections as a Transformer merchant apprentice?"

"That insignia on your chest is Decepticon," Amethyst growled, "So we _should_ have heard a hum when you were around. Efforts of opposite faction always hear that hum when they are near each other."

"Truth to tell, I was neutral up until my flesh turned to metal," Screech admitted.

"Whose Effort are you?" Jess asked.

"Skywarp's," Screech answered, flexing his wings, "But I was a weak Effort, which is why I've proudly signed my services off to Skynet, here, and gotten quite a power boost."

"A Decepticon was among us all that time and we never even knew," Sunstreaker growled, shaking his head. "We're blinder than I thought."

"Well, it _shouldn't_ be surprising, Sunny, considering your handicap," Sideswipe said, tapping an optic to indicate that Sunstreaker was missing one.

A second later, the twins had turned into their Lamborghini forms and Sunstreaker was chasing Sideswipe up the hall, bellowing incoherently at his brother.

"Alias, didn't you know this?" Jess asked Alias.

"Yes, but, I-I-I didn't understand," Alias whimpered, rubbing her head. "I still don't have a good grasp on this ability after all these years!"

"Wait, then that night we raided the Breaker Laboratory hide out and Max claimed you were trying to push Benjamin off the cat walk…" Jess said quietly.

"What can I say, babe?" Screech asked, shrugging casually, "A man has instincts as to what benefits him."

Jess stared at Screech for a moment. Suddenly, she grabbed Skynet's shoulder and spun him around, facing him towards her and halting the party.

"You knew this!?" she screeched.

"Negative," Skynet replied, "I am not completely sure of the incident that you are speaking of."

"This bastard tried to kill one of my best friends and wound up getting another one of my best friends flung in here!" Jess yelled. "And you _hired_ the damn bastard? That's like making a murderer your brother while you're dating the murderer's victim! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Uh, Jess, sweetie, maybe now is not the time—"Amethyst began.

"Stay out of it," Jess snapped at her. To Skynet, "Well, Skynet? Answer me!"

"Answer what?" Skynet asked, genuinely confused.

Jess was frustrated. Max had been kidnapped. A boy she had come to trust turned out to be a hidden Decepticon Effort and had tried killing Benjamin once. Anne had been turned into a wild Decepticon cat. She had been caged, she had been dragged around by metal claws, and now her potential boyfriend had just made a traitor one of his colleagues and didn't even know what was wrong. So she acted on her rage and slapped Skynet.

The slap was hard, making Skynet turn his face as his visor fell off. Amethyst, Alias, Scarletclaw, and Screech all stared in shock at the hit. Up the hall, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe even stopped, turning into robot mode, and stared. Too frustrated and embarrassed, Jess ran on ahead, past Skynet and the Lamborghini Twins and on into the dark hall ways. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe exchanged confused, worried glances, and Sideswipe took off after Jess.

"Jess, wait!" he called.

Sunstreaker, mean while stalked over to Skynet and knelt by the boy. He slammed his hand into the floor inches from the boy as his lights blazed in fury. His one good optic flashed tinges of purple.

"What did you do!?" Sunstreaker roared.

Skynet, mean while, kept his face hidden as he retrieved his visor and placed it over his eyes again. Sunstreaker seized the boy up in a hand and shook him.

"Answer me!" Sunstreaker yelled, "What did you do to her?"

Under his visor, Skynet opened his eyes, exposing twin balls of flaming red light.

"I fell in love with her," he growled.

Skynet emitted a telepathic shockwave, knocking all but Screech back from him and into the walls. Skynet dropped down from Sunstreaker's grip and instantly entered his hover camera form.

"Screech: Return!" he ordered.

Screech hastily transformed and entered Skynet's storage slot, knowing full well that Skynet was not in a good mood. As a hover camera, Skynet zipped through the halls, right past Sideswipe as he consoled a weeping Jess, and into the dark halls. In one particularly long hall, two doors on opposite sides of the hall were suddenly blown open. From one door poured the missing Autobots and the other, the Decepticons.

"See? I _told_ you that there was a hidden entrance!" Ironhide crowed, "You just had to shoot it up!"

"Wow that _worked_, Starscream?" Thundercracker asked.

"I guess all you have to do sometimes is close your eyes and shoot," Smartmouth snickered.

The two sides froze and stared at each other, finally seeing each other. Instantly, they scrambled to their feet and came face-to-face with one another, baring their weapons and fists in challenges for a fight. Starscream to Prowl, Skywarp to Jazz, Ferrofluid to Wheeljack, Smartmouth to Ironhide, and Bumblebee to Thundercracker. Before they could start fighting, how ever, Skynet appeared among them.

"Order: Cease violent encounter immediately and leave Breaker Laboratories headquarters," Skynet ordered.

"Who said _you_ could start giving orders, punk?" Starscream snarled.

Much to everyone's surprise, the usually emotionless and taciturn Skynet turned to Starscream and shot him with a hidden weapon on his hover camera body. Starscream earned a hit to the shoulder and fell back, gripping his shoulder as it emitted smoke and energon.

"Dad!" Smartmouth exclaimed, dropping down and propping her dazed father up.

"Inquiry: Questions?" Skynet growled.

"Skynet," Ferrofluid said, "What's the matter?"

"Question: Irrelevant. Departure: Immediate," Skynet answered coldly.

Skynet floated on, leaving behind a very confused party of Transformers. An engine buzzed and suddenly, Sunstreaker sped past them in Lamborghini form. Right behind him was Amethyst in Lamborghini Diablo form, then motorcycle-Scarletclaw carrying Alias. A little after them came Sideswipe with Jess curled up in his back seat.

"Hey, you little slagger!" Sunstreaker roared, "Get back here and fight like a mech!"

"Sunstreaker, wait up!" Amethyst called out.

"Guys, what do I do with a crying human femme??" Sideswipe called. "What do I do? What do I do?!?"

"Jess?" Ironhide asked.

Ironhide took off after the party, transforming down into a van, and was soon followed by the rest of the Autobots. Thundercracker and Skywarp exchanged looks.

"Should we follow them?" Skywarp asked.

"Eh, it's not like we're doing anything here," Thundercracker answered with an apathetic shrug.

Transforming into jet mode, the two flew after the others. Ferrofluid watched them go, then walked over and knelt on the other side of Starscream from Smartmouth.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Smartmouth asked fearfully.

"He's a little fried, but a little rest and he'll be fine," Ferrofluid said, scanning Starscream. "Come on; we can't stay in one place for too long. Not in this place."

The two pulled the barely-conscious Starscream to his feet, throwing one of his arms over either of their shoulders, and thus supported him as they followed the rest of the Transformers.


	37. Flippy

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 37: Flippy**

"Wow, they're cuter than I remember," Moriguchi chuckled, running a hand along Cartwheel's cheek.

"Will they be adequate for the experimentation?" Megatron asked staring at the prone form of Optimus strapped to the wall.

"They should be," Moriguchi said, allowing the other scientists to take the struggling little Decepticon Efforts over to a cage where they straight-jacket bound selves could be locked in for safe keeping. "Ah, this day is just working out _so_ well for me! First, all the Transformer Efforts are _dumb_ enough to be captured, then I start having all these _wonderful_ experiments conducted, and now they're all collecting in the same place for the final showdown…"

"I do not care for your own personal goals, Moriguchi," Megatron growled. "I only desire to be free of the _pest_ I have been forced to call a son. He's worst than Starscream…" He added quietly, "At least Starscream's not of my own energon…"

"Oh, stop being so melodramatic, Megatron," Moriguchi scolded. "Just sit tight while we get the little ones prepped and prepared for the bond cutting…"

"I am curious: How do you do that?"

"By studying how our personal Effort, a multi-compound mutant we love to call Juggernaut reacted from numerous experiments, we've determined that an Effort and their parenting Transformer are connected via their Sparks, which can send electronic pulse messages to each other, no matter what the conditions, space between, or mood they have to each other. Think of it as the Sparks are on a permanent conversation on cell phones, always telling each other that they're okay and complaining when one hurts the other. You get the idea.

"Now, all one has to do is force one of the Sparks to hang up their phone and… there! No more pain when the off spring Spark is harmed, no more homing signals when the fathering Spark wants to the offspring to come home. Of course, a Transformer Spark is far too complicated and powerful to force it to act against its nature. Hence, we will manipulate the offspring Spark via energy zaps and cyber code-imbedded lasers to force the offspring Spark to shut up. We have already figured out ways of changing an Efforts' entire personality by these zaps, as our three Autobot Efforts have proven."

"Are there after affects?" Megatron asked curiously.

"Mmm, for the fathering Spark, not really," Moriguchi admitted. "The fathering Spark will be weak for a time, and may suffer depression, but it will recover. The offspring Spark, how ever, will suffer permanent brain damage, vastly destroying the initial personality and turning the offspring into a depressed zombie, refusing to eat or act, until they die. When we did this with ex-Autobot Effort Max, we almost lost him, but we found that after an offspring Spark has been forced apart from the fathering Spark, that Effort becomes _very_ subject to suggestion and will do _anything_ a person tells it to. We assume that it's the last shred of humanity with in the broken shell of the Effort that begs for attention to give it a reason to live, making it act in any way possible to please anyone that so much as looks at them right."

"So, should this experiment work again, I will be free, but Mextron will be nothing more than a puppet?" Megatron inquired.

"Ah, yes, the perfect soldier," Moriguchi purred. "But first, we'll test it on these two little _offerings_ you gave us. I know of a few women here who would just _love_ to have their own children to play with…"

As Moriguchi rushed off to begin the Spark separation, Megatron looked down at Cartwheel and Shadowleap in their cages. They were bound up in straight jackets as if they were enwrapped in a spider's silk cocoon and were currently leaning against the walls of their cages, trying to get as close to each other as possible. It was almost pathetic, watching those wet puppy eyes stare at each other in an attempt to escape the horrors around them. But then he started remembering those sad, pale little faces when they were smiling.

He remembered how Shadowleap would teleport into battle, grinning like his joker father as he tossed Rumble into the fight ahead of him. He remembered the adorably stupid face of surprise Cartwheel gave Megatron when he first spoke to her alone. He remembered how the two little grubs made Thundercracker and Skywarp laugh and generally improve moral around the base because of their cute antics. Megatron didn't _really_ care about the Seekers, or their happiness, or their Efforts, but appreciated how much better the soldiers fought when they were in good spirits, knowing that when they got back to base, Cartwheel would be there with her healing capabilities and Shadowleap with his jokes. Megatron told himself that he didn't care, that he was Lord Megatron, tyrant of the universe and future ruler of it, and that he was above having flimsy fleshling pawns in his crusade for dominance. He told himself all this, and yet…

He looked at Mextron, hanging limply in his cage by his wrists. Closing his optics, he rubbed his forehead and groaned in frustration.

"Just hang in there, Lord Megatron, and soon enough whatever you're feeling won't ever bother you again," Moriguchi told Megatron, passing by with a lap top in hand.

Megatron snapped his red optics opened and looked down at Moriguchi.

"You know, Moriguchi," Megatron growled as he crouched beside the human doctor. "I came here betraying two of my elites and throwing the rest out as a distraction because I hate organics and wanted to remove them from my army. I _hate_ having organic allies."

"Well, then, it's a good thing you came here," Moriguchi said, setting his lap top down on a desk. "We'll get the organics out of your army soon enough—"

A massive black fist slammed down onto the desk, crushing it. Everyone jumped in the laboratory and turned to look up at Megatron. In their cages, Cartwheel and Skywarp exchanged surprised looks.

"But at least the Efforts are _part_ Transformer..."

Megatron lifted his arm cannon and aimed it at Mextron's cage.

"While _you_ don't even have a handful of nanobots in your body."

"Activate the security system, now!" Moriguchi yelled.

A bright flash appeared on Megatron's arm cannon before striking Mextron's cage, blasting apart the metal bars. Megatron grabbed Cartwheel's and Shadowleap's cages, breaking them open and shaking the two little children into one hand.

"Shadowleap, stop screwing with me and just teleport out of those damn bonds," Megatron snapped.

"What ever you say, Flippy," Shadowleap said, grinning as he disappeared in a puff of black smoke and reappeared on top of his straight jacket.

"Flippy?" Megatron asked.

Megatron stared at Shadowleap as the boy undid Cartwheel's bonds, but purposefully stomped on top of a laboratory table as he went over to Optimus Prime.

"Yeah, because you're always flipping your decisions!"

"Don't make me put you back, boy," Megatron growled.

Shadowleap teleported himself and Cartwheel to Megatron's shoulder and Megatron slapped Optimus Prime none too gently.

"Optimus, stop being so dramatic and wake up, I _know_ you can handle whatever these pathetic organics throw at you," Megatron snapped.

"Megatron?" Optimus groaned, stirring as he woke up. "What--?"

"Am I doing here?" Megatron asked, clasping his hands together and bringing them over his head. "Freeing you, of course."

Megatron brought both fists down twice, snapping the locks around Optimus' wrists. Optimus shook himself, further waking up, but jerked in pain when Megatron kicked at his shin.

"Freeing me? Why—oww!"

"Oh, take it like a mech," Megatron snapped, breaking the leg locks on Optimus with a swift couple of kicks. "And the _only_ reason why I'm rescuing you is so that I can splatter your processor across the wall _myself_ after we get _out_ of this nest of idiocy. Getting Breaker Labs to try breaking me from my Effort, what an idiot idea. Now help me get Mextron and blow up that wall in an exit out of here."


	38. Begin Battle

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

******AN: In this chapter, things get somewhat complicated right before everyone stops being so dang emotional and starts kicking ass. Don't forget to review!**

**Chapter 38: Begin Battle**

Blitzwing and Tiestowing had come to sit on the floor of the massive arena, not knowing what else to do, when a door slid open in the distant wall. They looked up and watched as a hover camera entered, closely followed by a yellow and a red Lamborghini, then a whole caravan of vehicles and a flock of jets and finally Ferrofluid and Smartmouth with Starscream supported between them.

"You do not want to be here," Cold Blitzwing called.

"Why?" Thundercracker asked.

The door they had entered through slammed shut with a loud, ominous clang.

"Because of that," Tiestowing answered. "Now we are to fight the giant machines over there."

"Tiestowing," Amethyst said, "Why are you talking like that?"

"And what the slag is _that_??" Skywarp exclaimed, spotting the three enormous mech shells at the far end of the stadium.

Hot Head Blitzwing replaced Cold and demanded, **"What does it look like, dolt!? Breaker Laboratories wants us to fight them and loose!"**

"Fat chance," Smartmouth snarled.

"Another pointless obstacle? This is getting _so_ annoying," Ferrofluid sighed. "Shall we all agree on just finding a way out of here?"

"Fine, where's Optimus?" Wheeljack asked.

The a small section of the wall opposite of the one the caravan had entered through exploded at that moment, emitting in Megatron and Optimus, carrying a limp Mextron between them with Shadowleap and Cartwheel perched on Megatron's shoulders.

"Lord Megatron!" Ferrofluid gasped, "What has happened to Mextron?"

"Who else? Breaker Laboratories," Megatron grunted, setting his son down.

Behind them, the wall mended up as if by magic; metal supports crossed across the smoking hole, creating a grid. The grid emitted a foamy substance that soon hardened into a wall once more, leaving the wall unscarred. The Decepticons and Autobots automatically split up into their own parties with much distance between themselves. The Efforts powered down (all except the unconscious Mextron and the stubborn Skynet) and went to their own groups. Update reports were soon exchanged.

In the Decepticon Efforts' group:

"Megatron was going to do _what_ to you?" Ferrofluid asked Cartwheel and Shadowleap.

"Cut our Sparks up," the little kids replied in unison.

"Mextron is going to _kill_ Megatron when he wakes up," Ferrofluid muttered.

"Hey, why's the silver douche bag with us?" Shadowleap asked, jerking a thumb at Tiestowing.

"Breaker Labs destabilized his personality chip and now he thinks that we are brothers," Blitzwing purred, wrapping an arm around a stone-faced Tiestowing.

"And you just said that in front of him?" Smartmouth asked dully.

"**Does it look like it's making an effect!?"** Blitzwing demanded.

In the Autobots' group:

"So no one's seen Benjamin _or_ Max, Anne still thinks that she's a Decepticon, and Jess is in some sort of emotional break down because Sam was an Effort and became a Cassetticon of Skynet?" Optimus asked.

Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Amethyst, and Alias all nodded.

"Sam escaped detection because he was a neutral Effort, thus keeping him from emitting the warning whistle noise," Sunstreaker explained.

"Jess, honey," Ironhide cooed to his sniffling daughter, "I know you might like Sam, especially from working with him after so long, but it's over, honey. He's a bad boy now."

"You know, some girls actually _like_ bad boys," Sideswipe pointed out. "I should know because I—"

"Stop while you're ahead, Sideswipe," Prowl warned.

"Hey, why is TW over by the Decepticons?" Jazz asked, stepping away from the group.

"Skynet!" Smartmouth screeched, stomping over to the hover camera. "What the slag, prick!? You shot my dad!"

"You never cared for him," Skynet answered dully.

Smartmouth's fist smashing into Skynet's lens and knocking him clear out of the air and crashing to the ground. The crack of glass made several people turn to stare. Jess parted from her Autobot Effort group and approached Skynet as Smartmouth began yelling at him. Starscream stirred and sat up, rubbing his chest drowsily.

"That's a lie!" Smartmouth screeched, "I care for my father as any daughter should! Just because I bag on him all the time doesn't mean I hate him; it's how I show that I _care_ for him! I don't insult people in my own faction that I'm not comfortable with. I insult Starscream to show that I have spunk, just like him, and I've got fire, too, and am ready to fight with the best of 'em at anytime I want. I don't know what your issue is, Skynet, but you better slagging shut up if you're going to accuse me of not loving my father"

"Wow."

Smartmouth spun around and saw Starscream giving her a flattered, lop-sided smile.

"Wow," Starscream repeated with a chuckle, "_I'm_ pleasantly surprised."

"Shut up, you over sized scrap can of used oil," Smartmouth giggled nervously.

"All this sweetness makes me want to vomit," Megatron grumbled.

Skynet, mean while, had hovered right back into the air, shaking off his previous hit. Jess tapped him on the top of his hover camera alt-form. When Skynet turned around, he received the full impact of Jess' boot to the lens, sending him sailing up into the air before making a crash landing many feet and several seconds later. There were sympathetic "oohs" all around before the Autobots applauded.

Skynet emitted a confused mechanical hum, shuddering as he attempted to float again and failed.

"Stop hiding in your alt-form and face me, Skynet!" Jess yelled.

"Wow, Skynet's become a real ladies' man, hasn't he?" Shadowleap muttered to the other Decepticon Efforts.

Skynet shuddered and glowed briefly as he assumed his human form. In this form, he slowly climbed to his feet and tuned to face Jess.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't give me that crap, you know what!" Jess snarled, "You made Sam your Cassetticon!"

"Designation: Screech," Skynet stated, "Source of anger: Unknown—"

"Stop talking like a stupid Primus-damned computer, Skynet!" Jess snapped. "The reason why I'm so upset it because Sam, AKA: _Screech_, _tried_ to kill Benjamin and also got Max thrown in _this_ hell hole when he rescued Benjamin from him! You're undermining our relationship and everything important in it by hiring a slagger like _Screech_."

"Relationship?" several of the other mechs asked quietly.

"This _can't _be going where I think this is going…" Ironhide groaned.

"Inquiry: Source of excess stress from personal choice of adopting a Cassetticon," Skynet asked darkly.

"I'm _upset_ because I hate your decision but I _love_ you, Skynet!"

Every one and this means _everyone_ who heard this stopped short. Breaker Laboratory agents cleaning up their laboratory, Decepticons, Decepticon Efforts, Autobots, and Autobot Efforts froze, and even Mextron's optics snapped open in surprise. Megatron slapped a palm over his optics. Ironhide's optics bulged as his jaw dropped and more than one bolt fell off his frame to tinkle to the floor. Sunstreaker pulled some energon credits from a compartment on his person and handed them over to Sideswipe. Wheeljack leaned over and gently patted Ironhide on the back.

"Um, yeah, Ironhide?" Wheeljack whispered, "You got a problem."

"I love you, Skynet," Jess went on, "I love wondering what you look like under that visor and scarf. I love how powerful you are. I love how smart and strong you are. I love how you always know how to make me happy even _without_ reading my mind. I love the way we you touch, the way you kiss…"

Blank looks of horror appeared on several peoples' faces at the hint.

"I even love how you carry around all those cute little Cassetticons like puppies in a purse…"

The mentioned "puppies in a purse" groaned in their sub-space storage area. Skynet blushed under his scarf.

"But then you adopted Sam, _Screech_; the guy who masqueraded as a human right under our noses and even tried to _kill_ one of our own. Adopting an almost- murderer makes me remember that we're on opposite sides of a war where we're supposed to _kill_ each other: A war that will _never_ let us be together. I love you, Skynet, and I don't want to loose you."

Jess lowered her head as she brought up hands to her face to hide her tears. After a moment, Skynet approached her, placing one gloved hand on her shoulder hesitantly before he drew her into a loving embrace, stroking a hand up and down her back as he leaned his head against hers. He began to whisper, but he was so quiet that none save him self and Jess heard him.

"I am going to delete this memory now…" Megatron muttered, off lining his optics for a time.

"Heh, _smooth_ parenting skills, Ironhide," Skywarp snickered.

_"Shut up!!!"_ Ironhide roared, making a jump for Skywarp.

Ratchet, Prowl, and Optimus quickly concerned themselves with holding Ironhide back while Jazz walked over to Tiestowing, whose visor was still over his optics as he stood by Blitzwing.

"Hey, TW, what's wrong?" Jazz asked.

Tiestowing looked at Jazz. He pressed his fingers to his visor and lifted it, revealing the red optics beneath. Jazz gasped and took a step back in shock. Blitzwing chuckled triumphantly.

"He got fixed!" Random Blitzwing giggled, "Now he is my brother!"

"TW, Tiestowing, Josh, please, no!" Jazz whimpered, reaching for Tiestowing, but not touching him. "This isn't you, kid; snap out of it! Snap out of it!"

But Tiestowing only stared back at Jazz with blank red optics, as if Jazz were a crazy stranger he had just met on the street. Before Jazz could attempt anything more to rescue his son, the enormous jumbo screens over head flicked on again, revealing Moriguchi in the ruined laboratory that Optimus and Megatron had just broken out of.

"_Welcome, ladies and gentle-mechs to the Breaker Laboratories Office of Domination's combat stadium!"_ he said cheerfully. _"Here, we of Breaker Laboratories and BLOOD just __love__ to test our latest and greatest warriors and or experiments. Tonight, we will have two rounds—"_

"Think we're gonna kill off your monstrosities in round three, Moriguchi?" Sunstreaker asked with a devilish smirk.

Moriguchi glanced in the colossal giant mechs' direction, then down at Sunstreaker. He shook his head.

_"No,"_ he went on. _"On the contrary, they are __not__ for you to duel. They will be the mechs we of BLOOD will release upon the world once we are through with __you__. They can with stand even the worst laser fire and nuclear bombs, and, like the Energizer bunny, can keep going and going and going…"_

That last statement could have been funny, but judging by how seriously Moriguchi said it, it was tainted with an uncomfortable air of delusionary humor around it.

_"No, no, you will have two rounds to fight __other__ opponents in your own teams."_

At the mention of teams, the people were surrounded by multiple colored lights as half the arena split into three sections like an ironic peace sign, with the floor glowing in either blue, a yellow, or an orange color, and a white rectangle was reserved in between the main tri-section area and the three enormous mech shells.

Optimus, Ironhide, Smartmouth, Thundercracker, Ferrofluid, Ratchet, and Jazz were in the blue section with bright glowing bands strapped around their upper left arms.

In the yellow section, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Jazz, Skywarp, Megatron, Wheeljack, and Prowl appeared with yellow bands of light around their upper left arms.

In the orange section, there was Alias, Amethyst, Blitzwing, Skynet, Sunstreaker, Tiestowing, and Starscream with glowing orange bands over their left upper arms.

In the white rectangle, Mextron, Jess, Cartwheel, Shadowleap, and Scarletclaw all appeared.

All the Efforts not with in the white rectangle appeared in their Transformer forms, forced into their alt-forms by the same teleporting force that had placed them in their teams. Jazz spotted Tiestowing in the orange section and attempted to leave his own blue area, but a glowing yellow wall appeared on the exact border of the color changes. More glowing walls appeared, firmly caging the Transformers into their own areas.

_"Each team will fight each of their opponents __without__ help from any other team,_" Moriguchi went on. _"Everyone in the white rectangle: You're free to do as you wish except enter the duels. You're pretty much useless, anyways. All death traps of the laboratories have been turned off and occupied rooms have been locked out. You can leave the base, use the bathroom, use the recreational room, blow the place up, I don't really care: Your importance has come to its end."_

The white rectangle people grumbled, but sure enough, they were allowed to step off their rectangle as a door slid open in the wall closest to them.

"This is getting ridiculous," Skywarp commented, looking around at the mis-matched teams.

"So, who are we fighting?" Sunstreaker called, drawing out his gun, "Three hundred-tentacle monster? Godzilla?"

"Your mom?" Sideswipe asked.

Sideswipe and Wheeljack smacked high fives without looking at each other.

_"No, no, no, nothing like that. You won't be fighting anything particularly large or aged or even experienced, but they are nasty fellows to deal with, none the less. The goal is simple: Kill them, or they will kill you."_

As Moriguchi spoke, intricately patterned light displays appeared in the center of each large colored section, making the members of that section back a way as an out line appeared over that shape. When the outlines became firm, they darkened into shadows before developing full physical features and gaining color. When the figure had finished materializing, the light pattern disappeared, leaving the Transformers to gape at their foes.

In the yellow section, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Jazz, Skywarp, Megatron, Wheeljack, and Prowl faced the yellow and black Hornet. They had not yet been introduced to this fine example of warrior armor, but he was an impressive figure to behold, none the less, standing tall with his stinger arm almost reaching the ground when he allowed his arm to hang at a semi-loose position. The longer Bumblebee stared into Hornet's black optics, the more his Spark twisted and shifted in some inner garble of warning.

"…Max?" Bumblebee whispered, taking a step towards the smaller yellow mech.

To this, Hornet snickered darkly, making Bumblebee draw back nervously.

**"Yellow-Head long gone, Bee-Bot,"** Hornet hissed, **"Only Hornet now."**

With an excited hissing screech, Hornet stabbed at Bumblebee. Bumblebee flung himself out of the way just in time to allow Skywarp to receive the jab. Skywarp clutched his side and cried out in pain when the stinger stabbed him there. He stumbled back and fell against the shared center corner of the yellow section, holding on to his side to keep back the energon dribbling from his side as Hornet attacked the other members of the Yellow Team.

At the same time in the orange section, Alias, Amethyst, Skynet, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Tiestowing, Blitzwing, and Starscream came face-to-face with Juggernaut, the same twisted mutant that had "welcomed" Max into Breaker Laboratories so long ago. For a second, everyone stared at him with wide, surprised optics. As one, they all reared back and emitted exclamations of disgust.

"Ugh!"

"What _is_ that??"

"That's disgusting, Moriguchi, even by _your_ standards!"

"Repulsive levels: Dangerously high. Repulsive levels: Dangerously high."

"Do I even want to know _how_ they made that??"

"No, oh, Primus—no, Ironhide, _no_ one wants to know how that was made, not even the scientists!"

Blitzwing said something in German and Austrian that does not have any business being posted on the internet.

Juggernaut made a face like an amused smirk at Team Orange's antics. With a sudden roar, he leaped forward and struck Sunstreaker in the stomach, making the warrior double over as the air rushed from him and thus starting their own battle.

Meanwhile, in the blue section, Optimus, Smartmouth, Thundercracker, Ferrofluid, Ratchet, and Jazz all came face-to-face with an astonishing specimen of the Transformers race.

He was decently sized, being tall even by Transformer standards, with a strong, broad-shouldered body frame and well-made limbs good for strength. His over lapping armor was light, faded blue in color, like a blue summer dress that had faded after hundreds of washes. Long, thin red spikes unsheathed themselves from his shoulders and along a spine-highlighting column on his back and crowning his helmet. His helmet resembled the type used in paint ball tournaments or four-wheeler riders. Red highlighted the edges of his gauntleted hands, the tops and bottoms of his boots, and the collar armor around his neck. Grasped in one pale blue gauntlet, the hansom mech held an enormous halberd taller than him or even Optimus, donned with a magnificent blade that appeared to have been stolen from some mystical, higher land far, far away from this gritty arena.

For a long moment, no one could move in Team Blue. Finally, their opponent made the first move by raising his free hand and pushing the chin of his helmet up and back, removing it. A sharp intake was heard from Optimus. In response, the Transformer-made face of Benjamin smirked, making the dark purple energon stain streaks move across his metal skin like some cancer. Benjamin dropped his helmet down again and suddenly swung his halberd in both hands, slamming the blade into Thundercracker and knocking the unfortunate Seeker clear back into the wall. Thundercracker hollered as he pressed his hands to his side to stem the wild flow of energon there. The broken Benjamin went after Jazz next, and the battle began.

Skywarp and Thundercracker hit the walls at the same time with their wounds. They glanced at each other through their translucent, color barriers then laughed.

"We always get knocked out first, eh, Thunder?" Skywarp laughed.

"We do, we do," Thundercracker agreed.

Over in the white rectangle, Jess watched as the battles began. Already she could see that whatever Breaker Laboratories done to Max—or was it Hornet?—Benjamin—or the broken shell of him—and the weird mutant, had twisted them and broken them of their typical behaviors, re-making them into talented killers.

"We have to do something," Jess muttered.

"Yeah, but what?" Shadowleap asked, "We can't do jack!"

Jess looked around, then grabbed Cartwheel's and Shadowleap's hands and pulled them towards the door way that had opened up for them in the stadium wall.

"Come on," she said, "There has got to be _something_ we can use here…"

"May I come?" Mextron grunted, shoving himself to his feet and leaning against Scarletclaw.

While Scarletclaw had kept her feline robotic form, Mextron had reverted to his human one. Jess stared at him, glanced at the duels, then back at Mextron again. She nodded and jerked her head over her shoulder.

"Alright, come on quick, then," she ordered. "We don't have much time."


	39. The Ultimate Show Down

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 39: The Ultimate Show Down**

**In which I inter-weave my favorite action song with butt kicking and humor.**

"_Old Godzilla was hopping around_

_Tokyo City like a big playground_

_When suddenly Batman burst from the shade_

_and hit Godzilla with a Bat Grenade_

_Godzilla got pissed and began to attack_

_but didn't expect to be blocked by Shaq_

_who proceeded to open up a can of Shaq-a Fu_

_When Aaron Carter came out of the blue"_

"Tiestowing, are you singing in a place like _this_!?" Amethyst exclaimed, ducking a punch from Juggernaut.

"Shut up, I'm scared!" Tiestowing exclaimed, stabbing at Juggernaut's side with his daggers. The meaty mutant refused to acknowledge the stabbing and the identity-confused Autobot Effort continued to sing.

_"And he started beating up Shaquille O'Neal_

_Then they both got flattened by the Bat-Mobile_

_but before it could make it back to the Bat-Cave_

_Abraham Lincoln popped out of his grave"_

"Lovely, a zombie president," Cold Blitzwing commented as he did a front-flip over a charging Juggernaut. When he landed, his face had turned into Random, "But I think Theodore Roosevelt would be more likely to come back to life!"

_"And took an AK-47 out from under his hat,_

_Blew Batman with a rat-a-tat-tat,_

_But he ran out of bullets and he ran away,_

_Because Optimus Prime came to save the day…"_

"Optimus is trying to save his _own_ day right now," Starscream yelled, noticing Optimus fighting his own son.

"Who _made_ that song, anyway?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Someone who hates lemons," Alias suggested.

_"This is the ultimate show down_

_Of ultimate destiny_

_Good guys, bad guys, and explosions_

_As far as the eye can see_

_And only one can survive_

_I wonder who it will be._

_This is the ultimate show down_

_Of ultimate destiny."_

Indeed, it seemed like the ultimate show down as the parties fought. Juggernaut was invincibly strong, breaking one of Starscream's legs when the Seeker attempted to land a kick to the back of his neck and snapping off one of Blitzwing's shoulder cannons when he got too close.

Hornet was incredibly fast, dodging every single blow tossed at him, only to return all of them, ten-fold, to one specific mech, thus knocking out Skywarp, Prowl, and Sideswipe in this manner.

In the blue corner, the manipulated Benjamin expressed skills that no one knew was possible for such a young person to hold. And without Benjamin's characteristic muttering mapping out what he was about to do, he was all the more formidable, taking out Ferrofluid, Jazz, Smartmouth, and Thundercracker in record time. The unconscious and potentially dead mechs were left to lie on the floor in their dented shells or growing puddles of energon, forgotten as breathing opponents were recognized to be dealt with.

As the war went on in the arena, Moriguchi watched from his personal office on a giant TV screen with a glass of wine in one hand, as if the life-or-death battle was some well-orchestrated tale of combat. To him, this was a merely a test of his Efforts; if they failed, they were of no use to him, anyway.

Jess' party, meanwhile, exited the arena and was bolting up and down long white hallways that had, as Moriguchi had promised, been disarmed. Each person opened up every door they came too, trying to find something of importance, only to come across another padded cell or empty room with some useless testing equipment with in. Finally, Cartwheel shoved a door open and peeked into the dim room beyond. Her large red eyes widened and she turned to the others.

"Hey!" she called down the hall to the dispersed group members. "I think I found something!"

Shadowleap appeared in a puff of black smoke beside Cartwheel and brushed his way inside as the other group members came into the new room. Inside, they found a room with two tables on either side, crowded with all sorts of equipment with boxes of more items below.

"Wow, what is all this stuff?" Jess asked.

"I don't know," Mextron commented, looking at the black marker writing on the cardboard boxes. "But all of these are dated from the 1980's."

Jess looked and sure enough, saw that the boxes were labeled: _1980-Dec-9; A. 1987-Sept-12; A._

She pulled the box out onto the table, brushing side some bundles of wire, and ripped it open.

"Ooh, presents!" Cartwheel giggled, grabbing a box and ripping it open eagerly.

"Cool!" Shadowleap said, looking at ten-foot tall box in the corner.

He disappeared in a puff of black smoke and a moment later, the box he had been staring at began to shake.

Scarletclaw strutted up to another box and, with a single slash of her claws, emptied the contents on to the floor. Amidst the Styrofoam popcorn, she spotted several round devices with four tabs poking out of them.

She hissed and commented, "These are Transformer inventions from the original war on Earth. They have been stolen and kept here."

"The date is when they were invented," Mextron realized, "And the A or D on them is whether they were stolen from the Autobots or Decepticons. But some of this stuff is so new…"

He looked up at the wall and, upon spotting numerous sheets of white-on-blue papers tacked to the wall, he nodded. He pointed to the blueprints.

"Yeap," he commented. "The sneaky slaggers even stole the blue prints to re-create some of the inventions."

"But how did they get them?" Cartwheel asked, trying on an over-sized helmet that fell over her eyes.

Mextron smiled lovingly as he pushed the helmet up, removing it from Cartwheel's eyes.

"Remember, Cartwheel, that Breaker Laboratories is a sneaky organization," he replied. "They pulled the wool over the world's eyes this long, haven't they?"

"Wait, if these are stolen inventions…" Jess muttered.

"Yes? Complete your sentence," Mextron implored sternly.

"Well, there were _a lot_ of processor manipulation techniques in the original war," Jess explained. "If we can find some of that stuff here and learn to use it, we can use it against the guys our guys are fighting and get out of here!"

"Yes, I see, good thinking," Mextron agreed, turning a round device around in his hands. "I see why Skynet likes you."

A blush rushed into Jess' cheeks and she looked away. Mextron looked at her and back at the device in his hands as he went on.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of; love is natural."

"But… I am…"

"An Autobot trapped in human form? So? Who am _I_ to judge who may love who? But Jess…"

When Jess did not look, Mextron put a hand on her shoulder and made her turn around to have her light blue eyes meet his own silver and red ones.

"Autobot Effort Jess," Mextron went on, "Whatever you do, _do not_ hurt Skynet. _Do not_ toss him away purely because of the insignia on his chest or of the Cassetticon in his sub-space pack."

He released Jess and looked at the device in his hand again.

"Now," he said, closing the subject, "I recognize this as a Decepticon-made invention known as the personality de-stabilizer. Megatron used it once to make the Autobots temporary Decepticons. And this…"

He took another device from Cartwheel's hands.

"This is the device the unaffected Autobots used to _reverse_ the effects. If we can somehow merge these two together…" He opened up a panel. "And find an energy source for it, we can use it to tame the opponents. But they will need to be frozen just long enough for us to get to them…"

At that moment, the top of the box Shadowleap popped open and the young Decepticon Effort popped out with bubble wrap tied around his head like a turban. He emitted several pops as he grinned at the staring party.

"Hey, look what I found!" he cheered, "A really, really, big gun!"

Jess and Mextron went over to the box and Mextron helped Shadowleap out of the box as Jess peeked inside. Mextron also looked inside then they both smiled at each other.

- - - -

_"Godzilla took a bite out of Optimus Prime_

_like Scruff McGruff took a bite out of crime_

_and then Shaq came back covered in a tire track_

_but Jackie Chan jumped out and landed on his back_

_and Batman was injured, and trying to get steady_

_when Abraham Lincoln came back with a machete_

_but suddenly something caught his leg and he tripped_

_Indiana Jones took him out with his whip…"_

As Tiestowing sung on, joined by Blitzwing in German, one may have thought it was funny, especially since some of the song looked like it was being copied out in real life. But Bumblebee was having anything _but_ a fun time.

The yellow, horned Autobot fell to his knees, covering his head with his hands as Hornet's stinger swung by overhead. Wheeljack, standing behind Bumblebee, leaned back to avoid the diamond-cutting tip.

"Max, please!" Bumblebee cried out desperately. "It's me, your father!"

Hornet gave no such acknowledgement, choosing instead to attempt to stab Bumblebee. Wheeljack shoved Bumblebee out of the way and wrapped one hand around Hornet's stinger while the other he used to hold back Hornet's hand. He allowed Hornet to slam him against the wall so that he could lean against the wall while balancing on one foot and the other blocked off Hornet's feet.

"Max, I love you!" Bumblebee wailed.

Hornet froze for a split second with his antennae twitching. What spell he temporarily fell under faded and he head-butted Wheeljack. Wheeljack let out a battle whoop and head butted Hornet right back, making the insect bot reel back and hum in dizzy pain.

A large black metal hand slapped Bumblebee across the face, hauling him to his feet.

"Oh, shut up," Megatron snapped. "I've had experience with such alliance changes in my own life time: He _will not_ acknowledge your identity, so all you can do is defeat him and hope that you can talk some sense into him when, or _if_ he wakes up."

"But… my son…" Bumblebee whimpered pitifully.

"Is not in his right mind," Megatron said. "Now, it is clear that Hornet is a mech of speed and precision, which can be defeated with simple dodge tactics. No matter how fast he is, he can not strike at all of us or deflect all our blows at once, with careful positioning. You stand here, I'll come at him from over here…"

As Megatron directed the distraught father to act accordingly, another distressed father needed guidance as well.

"I can't believe it," Ironhide muttered, backing up as he ducked halberd swipes, "Benjamin is--"

"Shut up, Ironhide!" Ratchet hissed, striking out in an attempt to knock Benjamin's feet from under him. "Can't you see that this is hurting Optimus too much already?"

Indeed, while the face mask greatly served in hiding Optimus' grief, one could not miss the misty look in his optics as he stood, staring motionlessly at the hansom mechanical form of his son as it tried to kill his comrades. Every swipe the Transformers attempted to land on the boy, he skillfully maneuvered out of like a living smoke. Every dodge extended into an attack. An arm retreat from a swipe whipped about to punch someone. By slamming the halberd into the floor and using it to leap up, he gained the altitude to slam either foot down on top of the head of one of the opponents. His moves would have put a Hollywood stunt man to shame. Benjamin suddenly turned his sights on Optimus and swung his halberd down, attempting to cleave Optimus in two.

Optimus' right hand retreated into his arm and out came an axe of orange light that moved on its own to block the blow. Optimus looked at the axe, as if confused how it had gotten there. When he realized how, he felt a new sadness sweep across his Spark.

"Is war so embedded into my circuits that I am now ready to use it against my own son?" he asked quietly. "Humans have always associated machines with war. Perhaps they were not too far from the truth at all…"

His arm swung up, shoving the halberd away from him. Benjamin took a step back to keep his balance and brought his halberd back to block a second blow from Optimus. Ironhide's jaw dropped in shock as he watched Optimus and Benjamin duel, but Ratchet shook his shoulder and jerked his head to the fallen Smartmouth, Thundercracker, Ferrofluid, and Jazz.

"Come on," Ratchet ordered. "We have to help them while Optimus is busy."

Understanding, Ironhide nodded and joined Ratchet in repairing the fallen mechs.

In the orange section, no one had fallen… yet.

_"Then he saw Godzilla sneaking up from behind_

_and he reached for his gun which he just couldn't find_

_'cause Batman stole it and he shot and he missed_

_and Jackie Chan deflected it with his fist_

_then he jumped in the air and did a somersault_

_while Abraham Lincoln tried to pole vault_

_onto Optimus Prime, but they collided in the air_

_then they both got hit by a Care Bear Stare_

_"This is the Ultimate Showdown _

_of Ultimate Destiny._

_Good guys, bad guys, and explosions _

_as far as the eye can see._

_And only one will survive, _

_I wonder who it will be?_

_This is the Ultimate Showdown..._

"Will you stop singing!?" Amethyst screeched, blocking meaty fist blows from Juggernaut.

"Why?" Random Blitzwing cackled. "It is fun!"

"Ja!" Tiestowing agreed.

"Shut up!" Amethyst screeched, turning on Tiestowing, "You are not Russian! I don't know what that triple-faced bastard did to you, but you're not Russian, you're not a Decepticon, and you're not his brother, so stop acting like it! You are Tiestowing, son of Jazz, a member of the Autobot Army, and my boyfriend, damnit!"

Tiestowing blinked and the red in his optics instantly drained out to be replaced by a deep blue color.

"Oh, I'm your boyfriend?" Tiestowing asked, still in his Russian voice. Amethyst didn't notice that it was faked this time.

Behind them, Juggernaut attempted to charge them, but Sunstreaker and Blitzwing got in his way, fighting fist-to-fist with the beast. Starscream and Alias snuck up behind Juggernaut, with Alias being armed with the discarded, broken-off cannon from Blitzwing's shoulder. Starscream and Alias both struck at the back of Juggernaut's head. Juggernaut turned and tackled Starscream, wrapping his meaty fingers around Starscream's throat in an attempt to throttle the life out of him. Alias squealed and began to rapidly strike Juggernaut on the back with her cannon bit.

"What does _this_ feel like?" Amethyst asked.

Dropping her javelin and shield, she grabbed Tiestowing's face and brought it to her own in a kiss.

"Woo, go get some, brother!" Random Blitzwing whooped, punching the air.

Tiestowing's radio, interestingly enough, continued on with the song:

_"The angels sang out an immaculate chorus_

_down from the heavens _

_descended Chuck Norris_

_who delivered a kick, _

_which could shatter bones,_

_into the crotch of Indiana Jones,_

_who fell over on the ground, _

_writhing in pain_

_as Batman changed back into Bruce Wayne._

_But Chuck saw through his clever disguise,_

_and he crushed Batman's head in between his thighs_

Tiestowing's optics snapped open, glowing a bright electric blue in amazed shock and happiness. He spun his daggers around in his hands as he broke the kiss to throw his head up into the air and crow happily. He did a front-flip over Blitzwing and Sunstreaker's heads just as Juggernaut downed Sunstreaker with a direct punch to the face. In moments, Tiestowing was spinning and dancing around and around Juggernaut, raining cut after cut after cut onto the meaty monstrosity.

Moriguchi raised an eye brow and sipped his wine mutely at the sudden display of speed and skill.

All the while, Tiestowing behaved in his own behavior, singing in his familiar European accent as he continued his song.

_"__Then Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White and_

_"Monty Python and the Holy Grail's Black Knight and_

_Benito Mussolini and The Blue Meanie and_

_Cowboy Curtis and Jambi the Genie_

_Robocop, the Terminator, Captain Kirk, and Darth Vader_

_Lo Pan, Superman, every single Power Ranger_

_Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan,_

_Spock, The Rock, Doc Ock, and Hulk Hogan_

_all came out of nowhere, lightning fast,_

_and they kicked Chuck Norris in his cowboy ass_

_it was the bloodiest battle the world ever saw_

_with civilians looking on in total awe."_

As Tiestowing sang, Jess' party ran back into the stadium, outfitted with several items. Mextron morphed up into his Transformer form, holding his hand back as if prepared to throw a football.

"Starscream!" he yelled, "Catch and put this on your null cannons!"

He threw a strange contraption through the air. If one were aquainted with Transformer technology, they would recognize the device as a sort of altered Imobilizer; a weapon capable of paralyzing anything on the molecular level. As it approached the orange force field, it spluttered and spat energy, creating a hole in the field that the device fell through. Starscream caught the item and slapped it onto the end of his right arm gun where it attached to his shoulder. Juggernaut lunged for him with a deep, throaty roar and Starscream instinctively shot at the mutant.

Starscream's shoulder gun flared with a peculiar blue light before spitting a wild, sporadic ball of energy down at Juggernaut. Juggernaut froze instantly in mid-step, as if someone had simply pressed "pause" on the remote.

Apparently, this counted as a defeat as the orange wall disappeared from around them.

Understanding, Starscream turned and shot Hornet in the back, also freezing him. Wheeljack fell back from the bug-mech's grip as the yellow wall faded from them. Starscream turned to shoot Benjamin, but was dismayed to see that Benjamin and Optimus were spinning around in combat too much for him to get a clear shot.

Shadowleap saw the predicament and mounted Scarletclaw. Scarletclaw, having talked through the plan, apparently, bounded forward and leaped, disappearing in a puff of black and purple smoke. They reappeared a split second later under Benjamin and Optimus' feet, tripping both up and knocking them sprawling. Tiestowing grinned triumphantly as the mechs fell and Starscream quickly shot Benjamin, paralyzing him.

_"The battle raged on for a century_

_Many lives were claimed but eventually_

_The champion stood, the rest all the better_

_Mr. Rogers in a blood-stained sweater._

_"This is the ultimate show down_

_Of ultimate destiny_

_Good guys, bad guys, and explosions_

_As far as the eye can see_

_And only one can survive_

_I wonder who it could be._

_This is the ultimate show down_

_Of ultimate destiny."_

When Tiestowing was done singing, all that followed in the silence afterwards was everyone's panting as they recovered from their fights and Tiestowing's and Blitzwing's very proud, satisfied grins. Victory was theirs, barely. In their observation chamber, one of the Breaker Labs members approached Moriguchi.

"Shall we kill them, sir?" the member asked.

Moriguchi stared long and hard at the screen, trying to make his decision.


	40. Melee

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 40: Melee**

"Wow, my old gear!" Wheeljack chuckled, examining the power up Starscream had had on his shoulder. "I see the personality destabilize chip of yours, Megatron, my personality re-stabilizer, and look, my Immobilizer! I see how it works, too: It works off of your null-cannon abilities, Starscream, and thus paralyzed your foes with a chance of reprogramming them into pacified mechs."

"Finally, someone sees my greatness and equips me as such," Starscream snickered.

"We only chose you to wield it because you had paralyzing powers before," Scarletclaw snorted, rubbing up against Megatron.

"I know what that means, femme, and I am _not_ yours," Megatron growled, gently booting the feline away as she tried rubbing her scent into him.

"Scarletclaw, are you okay, honey?" Ratchet asked, kneeling in front of the feline.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, go get emotional on someone else's shoulder," Scarletclaw snorted, turning away from Ratchet.

Blitzwing was bugging Juggernaut, Optimus was watching over Benjamin and Bumblebee; Hornet, while the others watched the spectacle. Ratchet suddenly grabbed Scarletclaw by her tail and pulled her back to him. Before she could even yowl an objection, Ratchet clutched her tightly to himself.

"Damnit, Anne, stop acting like this!" Ratchet exclaimed. "You _know_ you're my daughter and I _know_ that this is just some Decepticon reprogramming trick, so stop it and be your own femme!"

Scarletclaw whined and struggled, but Ratchet held her close.

"Wheeljack, can you see if you can re-wire the personality stabilizer to fix Anne?" Ratchet pleaded.

"Sure, thing, Ratchet, I'll get right on it—"

Wheeljack turned to go and have some privacy to do his private project when Megatron's arm swung up and slammed into his face, knocking him onto his back. Megatron took the personality stabilizer device from Wheeljack and crushed it with in his own hands.

"Hey!" Amethyst exclaimed, "What was that for??"

"Scarletclaw is rightful property and a soldier of the Decepticon ranks now, Ratchet," Megatron growled, tossing the metal bits over his shoulder and cleaning his hands off. "The sooner you understand that, the sooner you can move on with your life."

Ratchet released Scarletclaw as he stood up and drew a wrench from his compartment.

"She is under the effects of one of Soundwave's _tricks_!" Ratchet roared. "And I will continue to refuse to believe that Anne's a Decepticon until she is in her healthy state of mind again!"

Cartwheel was on Thundercracker's shoulder, using her powers to mend his broken arm. Now he spoke up.

"Hey, Skynet's Soundwave's kid," Thundercracker suggested, "Why not get _him_ to fix your girl?"

"That boy has already corrupted Jess and I will not allow it to happen any more to my little girl!" Ratchet snarled.

"Medic, I don't think she can be corrupted any more," Skywarp snickered.

"Hold on, now, corrupted?" Ironhide demanded. "Jess is just young and a little confused, that's all!"

"Excuse me?" Jess growled, inching closer to Skynet.

Skynet wrapped one arm around Jess' shoulders while the other hand reached over to hold her hand.

"Jess, there is no way on this side of Cybertron that you're in love with a Decepticon," Ironhide insisted. "You two are too different and are on opposite sides of a war that could never allow you to be together. You two should just split before you hurt each other seriously."

Jess stared long and hard up at Ironhide before speaking.

"Romeo and Juliet."

"What?"

"Romeo and Juliet," Jess went on, holding Skynet close, "The romantic tragedy of two young, stupid kids like ourselves who were from two rival families and loved each other very much. Like us, Romeo and Juliet had not known each other long before falling deep in love with one another to the point of dying for each other."

"Are—are you _threatening_ me with your life, young lady!?" Ironhide exclaimed.

"Oww, what happened?" Wheeljack groaned, sitting up as he rubbed his face.

"Nothing, go back to sleep," Skywarp said before he kicked Wheeljack in the face, knocking him onto his back unconscious again.

"Damn straight up!" Jess snapped with a confident nod. "I am _not_ going to just be parted from my lover because of _your_ taboos."

Instantly, everyone not occupied by the paralyzed opponents or unconscious began to object hearing this information and calling it "too much information". Yes, this included Megatron as well.

"Oh, shut up; we didn't go that far," Jess snapped.

"Yet," Skynet muttered.

"So, you're really going to kill yourself if I don't let you stay with him?" Ironhide rumbled.

"Either that or disappear," Jess said, leaning her head against Skynet's shoulder.

Ironhide stared long and hard down at Jess. Finally, he rolled his optics and groaned before he slapped a hand to his grey face and shook his head.

"I can't believe this, but… fine, I give consent. But if that little slagger so much as _looks_ at you the wrong way, he'll be dead and _you'll _be grounded!"

Jess squealed happily and bounced up and down eagerly before flinging her arms around Skynet's neck and he hugged back. Megatron rolled his optics, but knelt and petted Scarletclaw in an attempt to hide him self. Mentally, he was deleting the memory of one of his Decepticons in love with an Autobot again. But Starscream wouldn't let him be.

"Megatron, you're just gonna allow this??" Starscream demanded.

Sighing, Megatron stood up and glared at Starscream.

"Yes, yes I am because I know damn well that there is nothing I can do; just like your running mouth."

"Why you--!" Starscream exclaimed, his jets put-putting in rage.

"I still want my daughter back," Ratchet growled.

Ferrofluid and Mextron exchanged looks before powering down into their human forms. Ferrofluid had had his lower left leg injured in the fight with Benjamin, but Mextron helped him in limping over to Skynet. The two spoke briefly with Skynet and he nodded, stepping forward.

"Offer: Reprogramming of Scarletclaw into Anne," Skynet said.

_"WHAT!?"_ Megatron roared.

"The way I see it, Megatron," Mextron said. "It would be best to allow Scarletclaw to join the Decepticons under true preferences."

"Allowing her to continue as she is could result in a destabilizing of internal data," Ferrofluid went on. "It would be best to remove the false data now before it makes her unstable."

"You mean fix her before she turns into a crazy bitch like Blitzwing?" Sideswipe suggested, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

Blitzwing turned and smacked Sideswipe hard upside the head before he returned to examining Juggernaut.

"Precisely," Ferrofluid agreed.

"And besides," Mextron added with a sharp glare at Megatron, "See it as pay back for _betraying us."_

"Oh yeah, he's got a point there," Thundercracker growled, wrapping a protecting hand around Cartwheel while he glared at Megatron.

"Yeah, that wasn't cool, boss bot," Skywarp said, cupping his hands around Shadowleap. "Not cool at all."

Megatron looked down at Scarletclaw then at the circle of dark, threatening looks.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But you're grounded when we get back, Mextron."

Mextron looked up at Megatron with true shock as Skynet went over to Scarletclaw and took her head in his gloved hands. Scarletclaw shied away, but reluctantly allowed Skynet to touch her.

"Grounded!?" Mextron exclaimed.

"No flying, no transforming, and no killing or leaving your room for a week."

"What--!"

"And no social visits from anyone, either."

"I am the leader of the Decepticon Efforts! I can't just be _grounded_ like some kid!"

"You appear to have forgotten your age limit, yes, I can just ground you, and shut up; you're starting to sound like Starscream."

As Megatron and Mextron had this amazingly average father-son argument about the terms and reasons of being grounded, Skynet was embedding himself deep into Scarletclaw's mind, working to repair the damage done there. Ratchet sat near by, gazing on anxiously. Ferrofluid, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker, joined him in watching Skynet curiously.

Skywarp and Thundercracker sat off to the side, checking over and playing with Shadowleap and Cartwheel while Starscream sat beside Wheeljack's sleeping form with a tired Smartmouth leaning against him. When Wheeljack snored too loudly, Starscream and Smartmouth exchanged grimaces and kicked Wheeljack in the head together. Jazz, Prowl, and Ironhide were off to the side with Tiestowing, Amethyst, and Jess, giving them The Talk about dating and its limits, seeing this as a good of time as ever to do it.

At the same time, Optimus was over by Benjamin, Bumblebee by Hornet, and Blitzwing by Juggernaut.

Bumblebee felt a small hand on his arm and turned to see Alias standing by him in her Transformer form. The two stared at each other for a long time. Alias finally broke the gaze to look at Hornet.

"He knew this would happen," she finally said. "He has gained the ability of looking into the future."

"How can I bring him back?" Bumblebee asked. "How can I make him the irresponsible Max that I knew for so long?"

"….Insufficient… data…"

Sighing, Alias crouched down, wrapping her arms around her legs as she gazed sadly up at Hornet.

"What is the point of having a Universal Computer Program if it won't even work?" she pouted.

"Well, does it know where Moriguchi is? I don't want him springing an attack again."

"Sure: He's currently in a control room approximately 67 yards from here, forty yards up, powering up the three giant robots so that they can blast out of the chamber to the surface world above and destroy as many major cities as they can before they use a nuke inside of them to blow up and destroy the most fertile places on Earth."

Bumblebee snapped his head to look at Alias as his optics glowed brightly in horror. Suddenly, his personal problems were miniscule compared to the rest of the world. He turned to Hornet and leaned forward, patting the frozen mech on his shoulder.

"I'll come back for you, my son," he whispered.

Bumblebee sprinted over to Optimus, who was also sitting in front of Benjamin, helpless to help him.

"Optimus!" Bumblebee exclaimed. "It's Moriguchi: He's activating the monster robots now and will use them to destroy Earth unless we stop them!"

"Then stop them," Optimus muttered.

"But Optimus, we're not strong enough! We need your leadership and help!"

"You can do it, Bumblebee, I'm sure you can…"

A black hand with a purple strap across the knuckles flew through the air and slammed into Optimus' face mask, leaving behind a small dent and knocking him onto his back end. Optimus' dim optics flickered in mild surprise as he and a surprised Bumblebee looked up into the red face of Hot Head Blitzwing as he towered over them.

"**Enough of that!"** Hot Head roared. **"Enough of this self-pitying your pathetic Autobot! Is your son corrupted? Yes. Is your son frozen—"**

Cha-click!"

"Like a popsicle?"

Cha-click!

"**Yes,"** Hot Head went on. "**Is your son broken to the point of not recognizing you? Yes. But damnit, that is no reason to drop everything to wallow in his loss! You are Optimus Prime, ruler of the Autobots, Bringer of Peace, and archenemy of the great and glorious Megatron. You are the only mech to have ever come into hand-to-hand combat with Megatron, the most powerful Transformer in the universe, and win!"**

"That's open to argument," Smartmouth snickered, drawing fact that everyone by the unconscious Wheeljack, Skynet, and Scarletclaw were watching now.

"**You, Optimus Prime, are smart, strong, powerful, crafty, and undefeatable,"** Hot Head Blitzwing went on. He seized Optimus by the front of his armor and hauled him to his feet, thrusting his red face close to Optimus' grey one.

"**You, Optimus Prime, you damnable rival and nightmare of the Decepticons, keep on rolling in the harshest of weather, the most dangerous of battlefields, and through even the **_**greatest tragedies**_**, and the same should be for now! Do no abandon your duties and end such a marvelous, if not Decepticon-despised, career by merely coming to your knees and refusing to come up again. Stand and fight, Optimus! Stand and show that those organic **_**worms**_** can not kill you! Stand and rise up, Optimus Prime, or join your worthless shell of a son in an oblivion void of importance or use—"**

Optimus punched Hot Head Blitzwing in the face, sending the Decepticon sprawled across the floor, skidding on his back. But Blitzwing had lit the match and dropped it into the gas tank, returning the roaring flames to a dying Spark. Once again, Optimus' optics glowed brightly as he stood tall, his shoulders square and his hands clenched, ready to do battle. Even Megatron had to smile, grateful for the return for this titan. He would have hated to win the universe without someone as great as Optimus to stand in his way and make his throne a worthy one.

"He is _not _worthless," Optimus growled.

He turned and placed a hand on the frozen Benjamin's shoulders.

"Hang on, Benjamin, we'll make this right soon enough," he whispered softly.

He came away from the living statue and turned his attention onto the others just as Wheeljack woke up again. He groaned as he sat up, rubbing his head. Smartmouth reached a fist back, eager to take her chance at clobbering the inventor out, but Optimus grabbed Wheeljack's arms and pulled him to his feet, out of harm's way. Skynet suddenly released Scarletclaw and she slumped over, panting as her optics opened and closed rapidly. The red color drained from her optics, returning them into a healthy turquoise.

"Wh-what?" she panted. "What—what was I _thinking_??"

"Anne?" Ratchet asked hopefully.

"Daddy!" Anne mewed, bounding into her father's arms.

"Nice to have you back, Anne," Optimus said. "Alias: How long until those giants are activated and moving?"

"….Ten minutes, fifty-four seconds," Alias said, her optics glowing as she stared into space. "Necessary actions to stop the activation of the giants include finding their control room and shutting down the central control computer, removing the fuel and nuclear cells from the giants, and their battle computers. Possible obstacles: Lack of team work and protection drones with in the giants' shells."

"How strong are these drones?" Skywarp asked.

"With thirty-six weapons and quick-repairing nanobots capable of regenerating entire limbs, _highly_ fatal," Alias replied.

"Slaaaaaag…" Skywarp groaned.

"Alright, you heard her, men," Optimus told his Autobots. "Go to the giants and remove their fuel and nuclear cells and battle computers. Wheeljack, take who ever you need and find the control rooms to _shut that computer down_."

"Right!" Wheeljack replied, flashing the thumbs up sign. "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, come on. You too, Alias; the battlefield is no place for you."

As the Twins assumed their Lamborghini forms and Alias, her motorcycle one, Ferrofluid stepped forward.

"If you will allow me, may I come with you?" Ferrofluid asked.

"Sure, come on," Wheeljack said, turning into his race car from and zipping away. "Alias: Lead the way!"

Ferrofluid quickly turned into his army helicopter form and sped after them.

"UCP GPS activated," Alias said in her computer monotone voice as she led the way. "Please take the next left…"

"GPS voice: Sexy," Sideswipe snickered.

"Sideswipe, you pervert," Sunstreaker growled.

"My mechs and I will watch your mechs' backs as you remove the cells and computers," Megatron told Optimus.

"Yeah, not to rain on the parade, but how are we gonna get _all_ the way up there?" Jazz asked, looking up and up to the top of the colossal mechanical giants.

Tiestowing activated his flying components, flying low to the ground before going straight up in a sort of joke.

"I mean if we don't have wings!" Jazz yelled.

"Need a lift?" Thundercracker asked, coming up behind Jazz and picking him up under his arms.

Skywarp grabbed Ironhide, Smartmouth helped Ratchet, and a _very_ reluctant Starscream picked up Bumblebee, maneuvering precariously with his one good wing and leg. They all flew to the chest panels of the giant machine monsters and used their laser fire to burn open a hole in the colossal beings. The others stood below, drawing out their weapons and scanning the colossal beings for signs of the drones. Megatron's optics flickered when he saw metal shapes crawling over the beings' shoulders. He nudged Optimus in the arm and pointed.

"Get ready, men," Optimus said, readying his gun.

Jess and Anne cleared their throats.

"And ladies."

Then the drones appeared, leaping from their charges' shoulders and diving for the invading Autobots and Decepticons. At first glance, they resembled nothing more than long, wide straps of metal ribbon. But upon landing on their target, they curled up and hardened, becoming round, hoop-like robots with long spindles of arms that quickly wove together to become hard, sinewy cable muscles. A long line of black glass eyes running along their outer hoop edge marked out their eyes. In the center of some of their hoops, more metal strings came from the edges and connected, forming a strange, impressive display of metal guts. The drones that developed these guts hunkered down, casting up force fields. Those who did not develop these guts went into combat.

As the Transformers began to fight the drones, they realized two main key components that helped these drones.

First, the fighting drones could dissolve into a ribbon contraption at any moment, dissolving in their metal hands only to come and strangle them or attempt to bind them in someway. Their lack of a solid, thick body made it harder for them to be targeted, and in the dim lighting, to be seen.

Finally, the drones that had cast up force fields acted as safe points. Whenever a drone needed a break, they merely scuttled into the glowing orb of their comrades' shields, waited a split second for their wounded bits to be restored, then they would be back in the fight once more.

With all these abilities going against them, the Transformers were in for a long, hard fight.


	41. Circumstances Change

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 41: Circumstances Change**

During all this time, Michelangelo and Skyfire circled the Russian sky, waiting for a word from the team below ground. Jack Turbine contacted them from their station with in the _Ark_.

"_This is Jack Turbine to Skyfire; any word from Optimus and the others yet, Sky?"_ Jack called.

"Negative, Jack," Skyfire sighed. "I'm starting to think that they're not coming up."

"_How long until we go down there ourselves?"_

"Not for another two hours. After that, we are calling in more help to find them. How goes the war?"

"_Well, between the United Nations and Neo-Nazis is a dead lock,"_ Jack reported. _"But rumor has it that a spy is going to bust them down from the inside pretty soon. On Cybertron, Megatron's army is pretty much breaking everything in sight and the Autobots and Cybertron Guard aren't doing so hot in the way of keeping them back. I hate to sound cancerous, but whatever Optimus and the others are doing over there is, it better be good or Cybertron could be lost to the Decepticons again pretty soon."_

"It _is_ worth it," Michelangelo said quietly, staring through Skyfire's windshield at the forest below.

"_How do you know?"_

"...Trust me, I just know."

- - - -

_Flying over the grey and blue, snow-capped mountains miles above the ground, it was an exhilarating flight. He spun over and rolled in the clouds like one might when enjoying a bed of soft sheets. He had some direction, and yet, he could not control himself. Suddenly, he came over the last of the caps and saw a pair of jets flying through the air._

_The first was a Concorde. That passenger jet created between the French and British was capable of going at Mach 2 and had been quite a flyer. Sure, it lacked any form of entertainment, but with a sleek, flat tail attached to a long, narrow, graceful dart, it was excusable as the passengers would land in a rather stylish fashion. But the jet had been grounded after a rather nasty Paris incident, and this model was blue and black with a dark blue flower pattern on either wing; what was it doing in the skies?_

_The other jet was in the same class of superior technology, but in the opposite side of the bridge concerning purpose. An SR-71 Blackbird, the large, black beast of a jet seemed more like it had been stolen from a science fiction war film than created by the Americans as the fastest, highest spy plane ever known to live. This magnificent specimen of technology kept its traditional inky black hide color, but was accented with orchid and lavender colors with a triangular panel o nits wings. What was this strange pair doing traversing the skies together?_

_He looked down and was appaled to see the green mountain slopes give away to black and gray scarred landscape. There! Was that a city? But… no, the buildings were in ruin, being shattered and cast against each other like a child's forgotten toy construction of popsicle sticks. Cars were black and rusty on the streets, and not a living creature stirred. The entire land, save for the wind, was eerily silent. What was the worst were the skeletons: hundreds and hundreds of skeletons slept about; killed where they stood by some horrifically awesome display of power. What could do such a thing?_

_Suddenly, miraculously, the Concorde spoke._

"_Shadow," the teenage female whined, "Can't we just go home? We have enough fuel to last us another two weeks!"_

"_No, Cartwheel," the Blackbird growled in an older, masculine voice. "We need more for anyone that might come to us."_

"_Anyone who might come to us!?" The Concorde exclaimed. "Shadow; there hasn't been a living soul since the __nukes!__ Everyone's either gone to Cybertron, Mars, or is living in Moriguchi's cities! The Decepticons have Cybertron, and the Autobots are just __barely__ hanging in there on Mars! Face it, Shadow; you and I are the only free souls out here anymore."_

"_But… Mextron and the others… they might…"_

"_They're __dead__, Shadow," Cartwheel sighed. "They're __dead__ and they're __not__ coming back."_

_A heavy silence fell between the two. Suddenly, the Blackbird rolled over in the air and transformed into a robot. He looked like a Seeker, but he had longer limbs, and sharper wing fins. He turned his bright red optics on the Concorde as she transformed into a similar Seeker, but with a long metal skirt and a black and blue array of cables making up hair. Her deep indigo eyes were filled with an untold sadness as Shadowleap spoke._

"_I know," Shadowleap said, his voice cracking, "But Mextron always taught us to stick together. Always. So that's what I'll keep doing right up until I die."_

_Cartwheel sighed and looked down._

_Before he could find out more, a whistling noise of air came through the air. The jets looked up with startled, scared looks, looking right through him at something behind him. Suddenly, he lost the ability to fly and fell through the air. The whistling noise flew by over head, taking the brief image of a missile before it hit and blew something up. A female scream of pain rang out and he heard Shadowleap calling Cartwheel's name before _he fell back into his body and slumped over. The last traces of the numbing ray faded from his limbs.

Looking around, Hornet saw the battle going on between the Transformers and protecting drones. Looking up, he saw Cartwheel and Shadowleap on their fathers' shoulders, aiding in anyway they could.

"**Little ones no need bad future like that,"** he said. **"Too late for Hornet, but not for little ones. Hornet save little ones and world. Maybe then Hornet **_**really **_**matter."**

Hornet took wing and darted up to the nearest colossal nuke-carrying giant. Bumblebee was in a cavity just below him, chucking out glowing canisters of substance. Hornet swung at a drone, getting it off of Bumblebee before he darted away, not even slowing down to accept a thanks from Bumblebee. In spite of his reprogramming by Breaker Labs, Hornet's single scrap of humanity still had the capacity to sacrifice him self to save the young innocents from a hellish future they did not deserve.

- - - -

"Here!" Wheeljack exclaimed, sliding to a sideways stop in front of a large door in the long, dim white hall. "The control room!"

"How do you know?" Sunstreaker asked as he, Sideswipe, Alias, and Ferrofluid came up and transformed.

"Hey, she said second door on the left, right?" Wheeljack asked, jerking a thumb at Alias. "So we're here!"

"Yeah, that's right," Alias confirmed, rubbing her head, "Sideswipe, you mind of not shouting 'GPS' so loudly every time I talk from now on, okay?"

"Fine, but I get to call you GPS Jessie."

"Twins: Guard the door," Ferrofluid ordered, powering down into his human form and entering the control room. "Alias, Wheeljack; let's see what we can do."

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe took positions on either side of the door as Alias powered down into her human form and followed Ferrofluid into the room. Wheeljack, being too large to fit through the door, got on his hands and knees and peered inside, ready to suggest things from his rather awkward position. Sideswipe looked at the door and then Sunstreaker.

"Hey, bro, where did Wheeljack get that weird mark on his butt?" Sideswipe asked.  
"Shut up and guard the damn door, aft hole. You've been reading too much slash again…"

Inside the room, three of the walls were lined with large control panels of numerous buttons, switches, dials, and measuring gauges. On each of the three walls over the control panels were TV screens that fill the rest of the small room, letting the Efforts look down into the stadium through camera views.

"Is there any visual display available for the giants' data?" Wheeljack asked.

Ferrofluid reached for the control panel, but electricity jumped up, trying to zap him. Ferrofluid grunted as he shook his head and his hands changed into their metal claw alt-forms. The energy did not affect him as he quickly tapped and operated the control panels. A moment later, windows of simple data commands popped up on screen.

"Got it," Ferrofluid confirmed.

"Alright, we're gonna have to over write the attack commands with a neutralizing code and lock them down from any more manipulation from Breaker Labs or other parties."

"Like from Decepticons?"

"Er…"

"I understand," Ferrofluid chuckled, tapping at the control counsel. "I would do the same thing, too. Alias, do you know the proper codes to help us? Use your UCP."

"Collecting data…" Alias responded, reverting to her computer personality.

"Hmm," Ferrofluid commented. "I don't think Alias' ability is so much as a Universal Computer Program as it is merely sharing data with computers she is not attached to. Amazing: to think that a part-organic femme could have so much computer power in one processor without affecting herself in serious ways. But then again, the price is obvious in that it has stunted her maturity, hence her rather childish disposition for one as young as her."

"Yeah, poor girl got dragged into a war she doesn't understand," Wheeljack sighed.

"Perhaps it is not too late," Ferrofluid said, operating the control counsel around the colossal giant war machines' data banks. "There is much confusion here. It would be easy for certain persons to slip out easily and disappear."

Wheeljack's ear fins blinked thrice in confusion.

"What are you going at, Ferrofluid?" Wheeljack asked.

For a moment, Ferrofluid did not respond. When he did, it was in a business like tone, but what he spoke about was far from being mere business.

"Alias, Cartwheel, and Shadowleap are too young to be at war," Ferrofluid said. "And this might come as a shock to you, but I believe in souls, and do not wish for Cartwheel's and Shadowleap's souls to be damned at such a young age. The other Decepticon Efforts and I have discussed this, and we wish for the little ones to escape this war and go on to live proper lives."

"You need help?" Wheeljack asked.

"Yes. We need for the little ones to disappear into a loving family where _no one_ will ever find them again. They need to go to a good family that can love and care for them and teach them right from wrong and keep their true identities secret. Can you help us, Wheeljack?"

Wheeljack was silent for a long moment, not because he was debating his answer, but he was shocked that he had received so much trust in such a sudden amount of time. Finally, he nodded.

"Yes," he said. "I can."

At that moment, Alias announced, "Sufficient data achieved for approximately 32 possible neutralizing codes."

"Alright then, let's work at this," Ferrofluid said, "Give me the first one."

- - - -

They had been fighting as hard as they could for the past six minutes, but still very few drone bodies littered the floor. The smaller Autobots were racing and struggling to find the power and nuclear cells with in the enormous machines while the other Autobots and Decepticons watched their back, but the clock was running short and they had still not succeeded in their end of the disarming of the giants.

"We have less than four minutes left, Optimus," Megatron told his arch rival as he blasted down a drone.

"I know, Megatron," Optimus replied, swatting a drone off his shoulder and throttling another one. "Get these things off of me, will you?"

"It looks like they like you, Optimus," Megatron laughed, smacking a drone off of Optimus and kicking it away. "They're crawling all over you like the organic grease monkeys you are so fond of!"

"You can learn a lot from the humans, Megatron," Optimus said.

"Yes, like how awful the consequences can be when you place your trust in the wrong people," Megatron snorted.

Skynet, meanwhile, was directing Screech, Rockpunch, and Suspicion in battle a little distance from Jess. Suspicion started the fight by freezing the targeted drones before moving aside to allow Rockpunch to shatter the frozen mechs with his fist and Screech released a blaring, god-awful tone that turned any frozen object in his path to dust. Either that or he went total Dragon Ball Z on them with his hand energy rays. Skynet ensured that the repairing nanobots did not raise up the drones again by using his abilities as a technopath to make them stop moving. He attempted to use his abilities to make more drones just shut down, but it had been a while since he had gotten a good rest and his recent emotional battle with Jess had been trying on his conscious: He was just simply not in the state to tell an entire army of super drones to sit still.

A little distance away from Skynet, Jess stood fighting back-to-back with Anne. Jess was constantly blasting up at the drones with Pointblank. Even if she missed, the shrapnel from her shots usually did damage. Anne pounced and rolled at her drone opponents, thoroughly ripping them apart before going on to the next one. Behind the girls, Juggernaut stood in mid-charging step.

A muscle in Juggernaut's shoulder twitched, then the same muscle in the other shoulder. A couple more muscles twitched in his arms, then his legs and abdomen. Apparently, the paralysis was wearing off on him. After a long moment, his limbs suddenly went limp and he stomped down on both feet, panting heavily. He looked up, fixing his vile, mis-matched eyes on the girls. A red light grew in his optic and his face plating twisted back into an angry, close-lipped snarl as he took a step back. As he did this, Hornet took to the air to fight the drones on the colossal mechs and Benjamin also unfroze, falling into a kneeling position as he gasped for breath.

Juggernaut aimed and waited for the fire in him to reach a peak. When the time was right, he sprinted forward, shoulders stiff, together and braced. Jess heard the clomp of the one metal foot and the other part-metal one on the floor first and spun around in time to see the mountain of flesh and blood coming right at Anne.

"Anne, look out!" Jess screamed.

Anne turned and could only gasp when she saw the enormous mutant coming to her. Jess didn't think, but acted: She flung herself forward, crashing into Anne's delicate, slim side. Anne stumbled out of Juggernaut's way just in time, but Jess was knocked forward as Juggernaut barreled down on her.

Ironhide saw this and screamed in horror before turning his attention away from the energy cells he was attempting to dismantle to rain laser fire down on Juggernaut. Juggernaut carelessly stepped on Jess, stomping and crunching bone and flesh before Ironhide's laser fire fell on him. Ironhide had not even known he was aiming at Juggernaut until he saw the bursts of yellow energon in the air. Dark red blood and sickly yellow energon came to be mixed together as melted metal and burning flesh appeared at the touch of Ironhide's shots, adequately killing the mutant. Juggernaut sank to his knees and slowly fell forward as the energon in his clear plastic veins drained and his strange, sweating optic finally dimmed.

Skynet heard Anne's horrified scream and spun around. He felt for Jess' mind with his own, but did not feel it. Then he spotted Jess on the floor, lying with one arm over her head and the other across her abdomen with her legs flexed, as if she were taking a nap. But the drones were ignoring her, passing around her like she was some plagued island of flesh among them. Then he saw the peculiarly shaped flesh, and the fresh bruises…

"No…" he whispered.


	42. Melt Down

**Disclaimer: This story is purely for entertainment purposes. Transformers belongs to Hasbro and any and all additional recognizable culture traits, locations, songs, etcetera, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 42: Meltdown**

Benjamin was instantly attacked by the drones near him. He fought back, dispatching them all as efficiently as an unrealistic kung fu action movie. He didn't question why they fought him; he was programmed only to kill. Something stirred in him and he looked up to see Skynet blast away the drones in his way to reach Jess' body. He saw Skynet sink to his knees beside Jess and begin to examine her. The drones attempted to attack him, but his Cassetticons fought to protect their handler. Benjamin stared, watching with emotionless curiosity.

Skynet, though, was feeling more emotion that he had ever felt in his life. Seeing Jess, he felt love for how beautiful she looked, even in death, felt hatred at him self for liking such an image of defeat, and hated Jess for dying without him. He felt confusion—_was this limp body that of his darling fire cracker's?—_and terror—_oh Primus, no, not her!_—and above all, despair, which only echoed her name.

- - - -

Over head, in space, Soundwave and Shockwave were in the _Reborn Nemesis_' pilot room. Soundwave suddenly grasped his chest, feeling a pain in his Spark. Ravage, at his feet, felt Soundwave's unexplained terror and grief and growled unhappily while Shockwave looked over curiously at Soundwave.

- - - -

"Jess, Jess," Skynet whispered, taking Jess's body in his lap, "Jess, please, wake up, girl, wake up."

The Cassetticons looked over to this sad sight and exchanged helpless looks. It was their purpose to tell him, wasn't it? But how could they tell him such awful news without sounding inconsiderate of their care taker? Rockpunch decided that he would have to take it upon himself to be the rude, inconsiderate one of the party.

"Boss," Rockpunch said in a strangled voice, "She's dead, boss."

As if a plug had been pulled, all emotions, senses, and worldly perception disappeared from Skynet, leaving behind a black void of some power that had been hiding deep with in him, being barred there by logic and the careful filtering of emotions. Logic had kept that power trapped for so long, ruling when it was needed. But in the wake of emotional trauma, logic fled, taking all its powers with it, and left behind only a raw, pure body of rage ready to destroy all it touched, as primal and hidden as pure animal instinct.

And it was this rage that Skynet released.

Skynet's entire visor suddenly flared with a red light that followed in the wake of angels of war or filtered through storm clouds over bloodied war fields. White streams of light appeared and began to run along him, darting quickly as he assumed his Transformer form.

He had Soundwave's dark blue and silver paint job, the face mask, and the visor, but after that, he was his own mech. A peculiar, thin, long triangle pattern was over the face mask, pointing the longest ends into the center of the mask. His helmet resembled a cross between an ATV rider's and a futuristic soldier's helmet. His body armor resembled some futuristic cyber warrior's, with dark silver, wide-topped boots and gloves with smaller accented limbs. Blending in with his armor were patterns of triangles. A square compartment window in his chest marked him as a Cassetticon handler. A cannon like Soundwave's was strapped to the left side of his back. This cannon now suddenly slid up on a metal arm and became attached to his left shoulder.

With the transformation complete, the glow that had changed him spread slowly, encompassing him in a silver bubble of light.

Over head, the giants' lights suddenly began to glow and they moved; time was out and the giants were activated. For a moment, though, time slowed and silence reigned as a single word came from Skynet, reaching everyone's processors via telepathy or some internal warning system telling them that the slag was about to hit the fan at hide speed.

_Die._

The white light exploded from Skynet, filling the stadium and rushing up into the air. Glass on the Transformers shattered, drones exploded, and anything flammable that was not in the Transformers flared into a new fiery existence. This included Juggernaut's body and the Breaker Labs humans close to the arena, including many Breaker Laboratory members and Moriguchi him self. His death was a slow, gruesome, and just one.

The giants shuddered and shook, raising their arms in an attempt to run, but failing to resist Skynet's rage. One punched the ceiling in an attempt to escape before collapsing against a comrade. One stood while the other two collapsed, too large and heavy to help themselves. This giant grabbed at the hole in the ceiling and began to tear it away, preparing to crawl out of its birthing chamber to wreak havoc on the world beyond. Megatron spotted light spilling in from above and grabbed Optimus.

"We have to get out of here before the giants explode!" Megatron yelled over the rumbling of chaos around them.

"But—"Optimus began.

"Decepticons: Grab an Autobot or two each and retreat!" Megatron bellowed, grabbing Optimus around his chest and rocketing up.

The Decepticons did not argue. Starscream grabbed Ratchet and Anne. Skywarp had Shadowleap cling to the inside of his shattered cock pit before grabbing Prowl as he carried a powered-down Amethyst. Tiestowing grabbed Jazz, and Thundercracker had Cartwheel cling to his neck before he went to Ironhide.

"Jess! Jess!" Ironhide yelled, reaching for the source of the white light filling the stadium.

"Forget it, mech, she's gone!" Skywarp yelled before seizing Ironhide around the waist and teleporting away. Wheeljack, Ferrofluid, Alias, and the Lambo Twins sped into the stadium. Ferrofluid assumed his helicopter form and opened his side door.

"Alias, jump in!" he ordered. "Bumblebee, grab onto my struts. Hornet, Benjamin, get in, you two!"

The brain-washed Efforts exchanged looks, but saw that the place was about to blow and complied. Mextron assumed Transformer form and grabbed Sideswipe while Smartmouth got Sunstreaker and Blitzwing got Wheeljack.

"We—we failed," Wheeljack said helplessly as he allowed Blitzwing to grab him under his arms.

"I know," Cold Blitzwing said quietly. "You did everything you could."

The evacuation took less than a minute, over all. The flock of Decepticons and Autobots flew from the hole in the ceiling, bursting into the sky over head as it brightened into dawn. This bat-out-of-hell evacuation was a display of a rare alliance. Skyfire and Michelangelo were flying near by.

"Look! There they are!" MJ exclaimed, steering Skyfire to them. "But the Decepticons are carrying the Autobots--?"

"I'm opening my bay doors!" Skyfire said, even as he did like wise. "They look hurt really badly!"

The Transformers flew into Skyfire in a few seconds.

"Skyfire, get us out of here!" Amethyst yelled. "The place is gonna blow any second!"

"On it," Skyfire confirmed, flying south and up.

"Guys, what happened?" MJ asked. "Where're Max, Benjamin, and Jess? Why are the Decepticons here? What--?"

"Shut up and have this thing put up its shield _fast_!!" Smartmouth yelled.

"Why--?"

"Because three enormous walking _nuke bombs_ and a heart broken teenager are about to blow us all to hell, that's why!"

Skyfire quickly put up his force field and turned, still flying south and up, just in time to see the fireworks.

The hole the Transformers had flown out of could not be seen from this distance and height. But for a moment, they swore that they saw the light around it darken and warp from some super twist of physics. The effect was reversed as soon as it was noticed, though, blasting an enormous globe of white light out from the center, brushing against Skyfire's belly and tossing the interstellar jet and all its passengers up and up into the air.

The light poured in with blinding force through the cock pit and blinded those with in and any living creature for hundreds of miles around as the entire sky was lit up as if there were two suns dancing in the sky. Amidst the light, there were enormous clumps of earth and shards of metal from a hidden laboratory flew up into the air on their own accord as something controlled the explosion. Somewhere in that light, the remains of Breaker Labs was vaporized and one scarred man corrupted by visions of greed and power and caretaker of the Decepticon Efforts, Moriguchi, died. Skyfire, panicking, rocketed into the sky as he stumbled inside to activate his hyper drive. Everyone's audio receptors rang with the massive explosion.

Even in space, anyone looking down from the _Reborn Nemesis_ jumped and stared when they saw a tiny white pot on the surface of Earth.

The cataclysmic explosion, fortunately, lasted but a handful of seconds, no longer than five seconds. But that was not the end.

Far, far below them, an enormous bowl had been blasted into the Russian landscape. Its sides were pockmarked by the edges of the salt mines and the Breaker Laboratories rooms that had escaped the violent, blast contained by some telepathic mind's savage demand for control even in its chaos. In the center of this enormous crater, a handful of tiny figures stood among a wild storm of quickly orbiting clumps of earth and other debris.

"He's still alive!?" Megatron exclaimed, yelling over

"We have to calm Skynet down before his telepathy causes any more damage!" Ferrofluid shouted back, massaging his sensitive wing-like antennae that were still aching from the report of the explosion.

"Agreed, but how?" Amethyst asked.

"Starscream, your null cannons!" Wheeljack said, "I can boost them into tranquilizers. Get over here!"

Starscream did not argue, for once. He sat down and let the mechs open him up and rewire him as they saw fit. If the mech had a part Wheeljack needed, they gave it over, even Hornet and Benjamin. In moments, they had fixed a new contraption to Starscream's paralyzing null cannons and kicked him out of Skyfire. Below them, pressure was building and the ground was beginning to tremble as Skynet gathered his strength for another outburst. Starscream plunged among the rocks of flying debris, spinning, twirling, and flipping around any body of earth or metal that threatened to crash into him. Finally, he came upon Skynet and aimed his null cannons at the telepathic time bomb.


	43. Epilouge

**Disclaimer:**** Hasbro owns Transformers, I own the story. Any and all additional recognizable culture references, locations, songs, et cet, belong to their rightful owners.**

**Chapter 43: Two Months Later**

"… _The war on Cybertron between Decepticons and Autobots continues to rage. Civilians have been evacuated to a secondary planet, lowering the casualty rate rapidly. In a change of good news, the Neo-Nazi forces have been severely crippled after the Battle of the Thames and over half of them have surrendered and or turned themselves in to the United Nations. Their leaders, how ever, General Balthazar, also known as the Decepticon Effort Blitzwing the Second, and his second in command, Willium Walter, are still known to be at large. Recent reports claim that the Neo-Nazis will either be defeated by Christmas or will go aide the Decepticons in taking out the smaller providences of Cybertron._

_ "In other news, the black market has received an unwanted revival dosage of trading, as an unidentified merchant has started up a large-scale weapons sales service for all sides of the war. Evidence of this has been provided by the Chicago Police Force…"_

_ - - - -_

Metal whistled as it sliced through the air. Stab, stab, swing, and stab, stab again went the axe blade of the halberd. He let his left hand release the sword as he spun around and stabbed the air with the one-handed sword grip…

And pierced a jelly doughnut flung through the air.

"Hornet!" the brown-haired, blue-eyed young man exclaimed.

"What?" Hornet asked, his sky-blue eyes glancing at his friend dully. He spoke through a mouth full of doughnut, "You were muttering any way, so it's not like I ruined your session."

"I was?" the halberd-wielding young man asked his dark-haired friend.

Hornet, AKA: Max was sitting on top of a disabled electrical generator the size of a BMW in the empty room with a caving-in roof that the halberd user had chosen to make his training room. He had a box of doughnuts in one hand and a voice recorder in the other, metallic one. Now he pressed the play back button on the voice recorder with his silver hand. The halberd user's own voice, only slightly fuzzed by the electronic, played back at him, making him slump his shoulders in dismay.

_"Firm grip…. Steady balance… Empty mind…_"

"You know, Benjamin," Hornet said, flipping the empty doughnut box over, as if that would create more pastries, "Maybe you wouldn't mutter as much if you just… _winged_ it?"

"'Winged it'?" Benjamin asked with a scowl as he cleaned his jelly-covered halberd off on his pant leg.

"Yeah, wing it!" Hornet said. He tossed the doughnut box over head carelessly and the box clattered the floor beside him. "You know, just screw everything you've ever learned from all those dumb military academies and find your own style!"

"Then what was the point of me ever going to 'all those dumb military academies'?" Benjamin asked, resting his sword on his shoulder like a baseball bat.

"That's the point," Hornet said, grinning devilishly at Benjamin. "There _was_ no point!"

"You're mean," Benjamin stated.

"Hey, Twiddle Dee and Twiddle-_dumber_; get your asses out here _now_!" a female voice shouted from outside.

"Scarletclaw is too gentle of a name for her," Hornet grumbled, dropping down from his perch. "Maybe we should call her 'Mental Abuse' or something like that. But it was something the Decepticons gave her, so I guess it's even. Hey, why haven't you chosen _your_ Transformer name yet, Ben?"

"I will choose my Transformer name when I become a Prime after my father," Benjamin replied. "Until then, I will go by my human name."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't know what to call yourself yet, do you?"

"Well, er, ah," Benjamin stuttered as he sheathed his halberd on his back. "Hey, how about you? You kept the name _Breaker Labs_ gave you, of all things! You should have gotten a name more suited to your powers, like Soothsayer, or Future Vision, Bitmap, or Premonition."

"Soothsayer makes me sound old, Future Vision is crap, Bitmap is nerdy and doesn't even make _sense_, and Hornet's cool because it emphasis my totally bad ass stinger."

He raised his metal hand in show and its fingers lengthened and morphed together, becoming a long silver dart.

"Didn't it hurt when they did that to you?" Benjamin asked.

"Nah, I was completely off my knockers. Hey, how about we call you 'Halberd'? Halberd Prime: Has a ring to it, doesn't it?"

"I suppose so," Benjamin said as he and Hornet left the training room and entered the lobby outside.

He smiled when he saw a certain red-headed girl in a wheel chair near by surrounded by all the Autobots and their Efforts with in the main lobby of the _Ark._

"Well, I find it interesting how your sword kept breaking because you were destined to use a giant, bad-ass freak-of-nature weapon—"Hornet began.

"Hey!!" Scarletclaw snarled, throwing a party hat at them. "Talk _later;_ enjoy our friend's home coming from the hospital _now_."

"Let me out of here!" the wheelchair-bound girl whined, "I can walk! I can walk!"

"No way, little missy," Ironhide scolded. "You're still getting over all them broken ribs!"

"Hey, you want me to _blow up_ this chair?" Ironhide's daughter demanded. "Because I _will_ do it!"

"Bombshell, please—"Optimus pleaded.

"Shaddup," Bombshell snapped.

"Isn't Bombshell the name of one of the Insecticons?" MJ asked.

"_Bombshell can get his own f*#ing name!"_ Jess yelled, _"Now let me out of this Primus-be-damned chair before I bust your butts!"_

"Whoo, she's got her fire back," Tiestowing laughed, wrapping an arm around Amethyst's waist and nuzzling her hair. "Just like certain _cuties_—"

Amethyst slapped him. Tiestowing backed off, rubbing his sore cheek. Amethyst smirked and quickly drew Tiestowing back and kissed him. Jazz looked at this display of a love-hate relationship, then looked at Prowl as he twirled a finger around the corner of his visor.

"Oy, Prowl, your daughter's got her wires crossed," he said.

"Alright, alright, Bombshell," Optimus said. "You can get up, but _please_ take it easy."

Bombshell ignored him by leaping to her feet, kicking the wheelchair away behind her. Everyone instinctively moved back as she clenched her fists and grinned while she glowed.

"Alright, power up!" she cheered.

A flash briefly lit the air and a moment later, a red and grey femme stood where Jess had been. She shared her father's simple helmet and body design, and indeed even looked like a younger, female version of her father. But there was a certain delicacy to her face, a false sense of innocence. Three small rocket launchers lined the top of either of her shoulders while a Transformer-sized version of Pointblank was hooked to a cable belt looped around her waist. A shiny, grey-metal diamond-star donned the center of her chest plate, being the only reminder of how close she had been to death.

She spun around and flexed happily, cheering. Ironhide laughed and hugged his daughter proudly while the welcoming party cheered and applauded, glad that a member of their own was home. Jack continued clapping as he leaned over to Wheeljack.

"Do you think she's found out what we've done to Pointblank yet?" he whispered.

"No," Wheeljack replied, transforming into his racing car form and opening a side door. "But get in, I have a feeling that _someone_ isn't gonna be too happy when they find out…"

At that moment, the copy of Pointblank at Jess' side shuddered and bounced, unhooking itself from Jess' belt. Jess looked down at the gun with a grin as it unfolded and transformed into a pony-sized, mechanical Tasmanian devil. The animal barked and scampered up Jess' side to nuzzle her neck. Ironhide's jaw dropped in surprise at seeing that Pointblank had been upgraded into a pet.

"Here we go…" Wheeljack muttered, inching back.

_"WHEELJACK!!"_ Ironhide roared, dropping into his van form. "_What did I say about weapon upgrades for my fire cracker?? Only __I__ operate that field, you get it, you hammer-headed cube of depleted energon!?"_

"Here we go!" Wheeljack whooped, spinning around and racing away from the angry van.

"Hey, wait for me!" Bombshell laughed.

She transformed with the Transformer's typical way of folding her limbs in and twisting slightly. Pointblank disappeared into one of the crevices that appeared as she transformed into a four wheel drive pick up truck the same shade of red as her father's van. She chased after Ironhide, whooping and ye-hawing like a Texan cow girl. Ratchet quickly assumed ambulance form while Scarletclaw assumed her Transformer body and went straight into motorcycle form.

"Well, duty calls," Ratchet sighed.

"Yeap, we gotta keep them from tearing each other to itty bitty pieces," Scarletclaw agreed.

"Alright," Optimus chuckled. "We'll have the welcome home party later."

The medical units sped off after the chase party and the rest of the party dissipated with the full intention of meeting up later. Tiestowing watched the dust clouds left up by the chase party as they exited the _Ark_ with his arm wrapped around Amethyst and Benjamin and Hornet standing near by.

"Well, it's nice to see everything's back to normal," Amethyst sighed. "We're all back together, MJ's training for an official piloting license, and we're all alive. But I'm curious, Hornet, how _did _you get Jess—Bombshell, alive again?"

"Well, I don't know, really," Hornet admitted. "I mean, I remember being an absolute _nut case_, and then, I dunno, I saw something that reminded me of my old self. Next thing I know, I wanted to change things and changed it. I think I went into another dimension and melded it with our own where Jess is alive and we all managed out of the place okay. Slag, I dunno, shit hits the fan when you're messing with time."

"I'll say," Tiestowing agreed, rubbing his head. "I'm trying to figure out whether or not I made sweet love with Amethyst in a rose bush or not."

"Let's see if this jogs your memory," Amethyst growled and promptly kneed Tiestowing.

Benjamin and Wasp grimaced in pain at Tiestowing's complete and utter main pain. Bumblebee came up behind Hornet.

"Um, Max…"

"Hornet, dad, Hornet," Hornet said, turning to Bumblebee behind him. "What's up?"

"Well, I was really scared of loosing you when you were gone," Bumblebee said nervously. "And I know how much more, erm -- powerful, skillful?-- You are when you have a skateboard. And after the last one, well, I decided to get you another one."

He drew a skateboard from behind himself and handed it to Hornet. Hornet's eyes grew wide and awe struck as he handled the skateboard. It was as black as ebony with yellow wheels and a wicked looking hornet on top. Underneath, a red Autobot face was stamped on the graphics side.

"It's made with the best of Cybertronian fiber glass and reinforced with army-standard glaze, so it'll last longer than any Earthling board," Bumblebee explained. "Do you like it?"

In response, Hornet dropped the skateboard onto the floor. He jumped on and kicked off, rolling around Bumblebee a couple of times before heading directly to the wall. He wall rode the orange metal and did a back flip over Bumblebee. As he went, he drew the skateboard out from under his feet and slid it onto the harness he still wore on his back and grabbed Bumblebee's neck in a hug. Bumblebee's engine purred happily as he returned the hug.

"Aww, how sweet!" Amethyst cooed.

"Wanna recreate the image with our own little guy?" Tiestowing asked, walking his fingers across Amethyst's shoulders before wrapping his arm around them. He did _not_ learn his lesson well.

"Only when we're twenty and married," she giggled as she walked away.

"Is that a yes?" Tiestowing called hopefully, chasing after her.

Benjamin laughed at the display of affection. He was so glad that his crew had found their way back home. But still, a cold draft wandered in side of him, a draft made by his time of brain washed service with in the Breaker Labs' ranks. Always, that draft warned him that it was his fault, telling him that if he had acted accordingly, they would have never been captured by Breaker Labs. If he had just listened to Max, Max wouldn't have been kidnapped and things wouldn't have gone so poorly. This draft was eating him away inside, but he would have to learn to dominate it, lest it consume him. The only outward physical sign he showed of this despair were the dark purple stains that splotched him like a dog's fur pattern; stains of how he had gained his Transformer alt-mode from drowning in energon. In time, they would fade, or he would get used to them.

"Are you alright?" a friendly, deep voice asked as a large blue hand settled around Benjamin's shoulders.

Benjamin smiled up at Optimus and replied, "Yeah, just lost in thought."

"Do you think you're up for a mission?" Optimus asked. "Decepticons have been spotted near a coal mine south of us and we'll have to hurry if we're going to get to them before they do any damage."

To this, Benjamin stood straighter as a fresh spark entered his eye and he nodded.

"I am ready," Benjamin agreed.

He glowed briefly and Optimus stepped back as Benjamin assumed his Transformer form once more. Now that Benjamin was in his right mind again, his armor had not so much the beauty of a splendid war machine, but the glow of a guardian. Father and son nodded together before Optimus summoned the Autobots.

"Jazz, Prowl, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Tiestowing, Amethyst, Benjamin; gather and prepare for a fight," he ordered, "A force of escaped Decepticons prisoners have been spotted near a southern coal mine and we must stop them before what ever they are planning goes through. Benjamin, would you like to do the honors?"

The interior of the _Ark_ was momentarily alit by the Efforts as they assumed their Transformer forms. Benjamin grinned happily at Optimus and bowed his head gratefully.

Briefly, he considered, _Halberd, hmm; it's not that bad of a Transformer name…_

"Autobots," Benjamin called, "Transform and roll out!"

- - - -

Meanwhile, Wheeljack with Jack as a passenger was frantically pleading with Ironhide for mercy while Ratchet and Scarletclaw chased after them. Bombshell had dropped behind the medics to avoid Ratchet's laser shots, bathing in the dust cloud the vehicles kicked up as they raced down the dirt road.

_Jess…_

Bombshell slowed and, when she was sure the others wouldn't notice her disappearance, assumed her robot mode and walked of the road and into the forest. In a clearing among the trees she found a certain dark blue and silver mech with his Cassetticons. Suspicion leaned against a tree with his arms and ankles crossed while Rockpunch and Screech wrestled like puppies in the grass. The two larger Transformers did not hesitate to approach and hug each other. Pointblank had reappeared at his default point at Bombshell's side and now transformed to go sniff at Suspicion curiously. Suspicion grimaced at the unwanted attention, but did not rebuff the critter.

"I told you, sweetie: My name is Bombshell now," the femme said, breaking the hug, but not letting go of Skynet's hands.

"I refuse to acknowledge that my princess has taken up the name of a manipulative, grate-faced _insect_," Skynet said sternly. "Jess, my princess, is more appropriate and Jess it will be when I am talking to you."

"You're so corny," Bombshell giggled. Her amusement turned to seriousness as she asked, "How are the Decepticon Efforts?"

"When Thundercracker and Skywarp heard about what Megatron almost did to Shadowleap and Cartwheel, they worked with everyone else to get them to a proper home. It broke their Sparks, but they didn't trust Megatron around them anymore. How many of the Autobots know of what happened?"

"Just Wheeljack and Optimus, officially, but those of us who've met the little ones directly don't need to have it spelled out to them that the Witwicky family's adopted children are just mind-wiped Decepticon Efforts. Was it hard for you?"

"Yes," Skynet sighed, leaning against Bombshell unhappily. "Covering up all those memories, manipulating the nanobots Transformer components in them to make them look more human; it was a miserable task. At least they will remember when they are old enough to choose whose side they will be on in the future on their own. For now, they are too young for war."

"I guess Mextron and Megatron hate the slag out of each other now, huh?"

"On the contrary, when Soundwave heard of how I was almost killed, he had a private word with Megatron. Now, Megatron is _much_ more civilized to the Efforts."

At this, Bombshell laughed.

Skynet went on, "On another positive note, it's been agreed: Efforts will not seriously attempt to kill Efforts."

"That's right," Bombshell agreed. "I can imagine that our parents would _loose it_ if they knew of our secret pact, but it's not fair. Decepticon Efforts never got a choice in what they were gonna be…"

"But at least we get a choice to stay together," Skynet said, brushing his hand along Bombshell's cheek.

Skynet's mask slid aside and the two kissed each other. Pointblank looked up with big, dark blue, curious eyes at the display of affection. Suspicion looked over at Pointblank and an amused smile actually crossed the Cassetticon's face as he covered the critter's optics.

At that moment, the radio in Bombshell's head snapped to life and Tiestowing hailed from it.

_"Jess—I mean, Bombshell! Get your aft over to us __now__ before the folks notice you missing. We're gonna go kick some Decepticon butt!"_

"Someday, _we_ will inherit this war, and _we_ will end it," Skynet told Bombshell. "But until then…"

He placed a hand over the grey scar on Bombshell's chest; the same scar created when a practice drone had impaled her in this alternate reality; an alternate reality that no one truly understood and the one person who did was cold in a grave somewhere.

"Fight hard, kill none," the two said.

With that said, they exchanged a final kiss before turning away from each other.

"Cassetticons: Return," Skynet ordered.

"Pointblank; get on over here!" Bombshell ordered.

The assistants went to their designated owners before they transformed and departed.

Bombshell spotted a caravan going along the dirt road: Optimus the flat-faced semi with Benjamin, a red and blue Peterbilt.

Jazz the Porsche with Tiestowing as his 1960's, alternate-future Mustang form.

Police cruiser Prowl drove with Lamborghini Diablo-Amethyst, who had colored her black and white body a bright purple and white to match her name sake.

They fit right in beside Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, the red and yellow Lamborghinis. One of Sunstreaker's headlights was still covered with a brown metal triangle patch with rounded corners. Someday he might get his missing optic back, but for now he would wear the optic patch.

Bumblebee the yellow Volkswagen Beetle raced with Hornet in his alt-mode of a yellow and black dune buggy.

As they passed a side road on the opposite side of the road, race-car Wheeljack, carrying Jack Turbine, raced in an joined the caravan. Ironhide in his red van form followed. Behind him came Ratchet the ambulance and Scarletclaw the sleek and fast red motorcycle.

. Bombshell revved her heavy duty engine and joined the caravan.

_"How's Skynet?"_ Benjamin asked on the Efforts' private frequency.

_"Fine, as are the other Efforts,"_ Bombshell replied.

_"I hate this deception, what, with the whole secret alliance and stuff,"_ Amethyst complained. _"It's too ironic."_

_ "Hush, Amethyst,"_ Benjamin ordered. _"It is a necessary evil to end this war."_

- - - -

Meanwhile, a bird-winged jet unlike any other that flew, led his party. There was Smartmouth, the maroon and dark grey fighter jet, Ferrofluid the army helicopter, Blitzwing the dark purple and tan jet, and coming up to them came the small hover-camera form of Skynet. Ferrofluid opened his side door and let Skynet float in while the rest of the flight party appeared. Megatron, in his robot form, with Soundwave near by. Flying around them with all the acrobatics of hawks were the Seekers, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream. Shockwave told them about their mission from back at the _Reborn Nemesis_ floating in orbit.

"I still find it _suspicious_, Skywarp, Thundercracker, how your Efforts just _conveniently_ ran away after the Russian Incident," Megatron growled. "I also find it odd how Blitzwing just relinquishes all leadership and cleans his hands of the Neo-Nazi force so soon after the Russian Incident."

Blitzwing grunted.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Thundercracker muttered.

But it was just a masquerade: Megatron knew, as well as the rest of them, that the fathers had sent their little Cartwheel and Shadowleap away somewhere safe, and Blitzwing had cut his losses with the Neo-Nazis rather than amidst that the army was doomed to loose. Now Blitzwing only led a team of hand-chosen mechs that were more loyal to him and Mextron than Megatron. A mere glance from Soundwave was all Megatron needed to remind him of Skynet's wrath at almost loosing Jess in Russia: If the same wrath were applied to the loss of the two little Efforts, Primus would wonder if _anyone_ would survive next time. Megatron made it a priority in coming years to not be so rash in flinging aside his soldiers, lest he would receive more lip from someone other than Starscream.

The fathers were all oblivious to the alliance their children had made, but sensed that something had changed between the Efforts in the time of the Russian Incident.

"Mextron, Blitzwing: Are your troops ready for the raid?" Megatron asked.

"Yes, sir," Mextron replied.

Random Blitzwing replied, "Yes, and Hot Head claims first dibs on the gasoline from the train's fuel tank near the coal mine!"

"Do trains even _run_ on gasoline anymore?" Skywarp asked.

The tan and dark purple jet assumed the form of a tank as an angry voice snarled back, **"Of course they do, doofus! They—"**

"You're calling _him_ the doofus when _you're_ over a mile in the air in tank form?" Smartmouth asked without looking back.

Starscream and Smartmouth didn't bother looking at each other as they exchanged high-fives while Blitzwing plummeted, screaming, to the earth. He returned a few minutes later in jet form.

Mextron glanced over at Ferrofluid and more to Skynet with in. Sensing his question, Skynet spoke quietly telepathically. While the Autobot Efforts had a hidden frequency set up by Jack Turbine, the Decepticon Efforts had a private field of telepathy.

_When will it end, Mextron?_ Skynet asked. _When will we be able to be with our fellow Efforts in peace?_

_ When we inherit this war, Skynet,_ Mextron replied. _Until then; hold on._

Blitzwing took upon this statement, singing in all his voices to the other Efforts in their private mind world. It was a snippet of song from Korn:

_**Hold on, be strong**_

___**So right, so wrong**_

___**With all of our senses,**_

___**All of our defenses,**_

___**Hold on, be strong**_

_Hold on, alright,_ Mextron thought privately, _Hold on, because you'll never know when you'll fly into the sky for the first time after so long underground. Because you'll never know when you'll leave the desert for green lands. Because you'll never know when a heart hardened by logic will glow in love. Because you'll never know when your mind, broken by your enemy's torture, will be restored by the care of your family. Hold on, everyone. Hold on._

**The End**

**Credits:**

**Decepticon Seeker Solarflare and her turbo fox Corona are property of ****The Great Susinko**** here on FanFiction. Net and I claim no ownership rights over them what so ever. I thank the ****Great Susinko**** for allowing me to borrow her characters and volunteering them back in the first installment of this series.**

**Transformers belongs to Hasbro, Cartoon Network, and other attached companies and I claim no rights over them.**

**All locations, songs, culture references, et cetera, belong to their rightful owners, including **_**Goodnight Saigon **_** by Billy Joel, **_**The Ultimate Showdown **_**by Lemon Demon, and **_**Hold On**_** by Korn.**

**Decepticons Mash and Flickword, and all Efforts ****(with the exception of Blitzwing) ****are creations of my own imagination. Any use of them must be cleared with permission through me first, or my claim on them must at least be acknowledged when they **_**are **_**used.**

**The story is my own creation and any similarities between it and already pre-existing stories is purely a coincidence.**

**Special thanks to:**

**Hasbro for creating the Transformers**

**The Great Susinko**** for allowing me to use her character.**

**To all reviewers and readers for hanging in this long.**

**Every little thing that has given me inspiration.**

**It was fun while it lasted, but this chapter of the Efforts' lives is now over. I may right short stories in the future of them, but never an epic like this again. If you want to request anything, feel free to ask.**


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